City Council Work Session of October 10, 2023

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good afternoon everybody have a few well thank you I have a few announcements to make the first is tonight's public comment meeting scheduled for 6: pm has been cancelled that's to allow council members to ATT attend a prayer service for Israel tomorrow night the city will be hosting a public meeting about the Redevelopment of City owned property at 1300 gendy Street which currently houses the for Community Art Center the meeting will be held tomorrow Wednesday 6:00 in the Scott theater we're inviting two development firms to present their preliminary proposals for the property interested residents will be able to hear the proposals ask questions of the developers and residents will afterwards be able to submit written comments for the developers to consider as they refine their ideas on organiz izational updates or employee recognitions first I'm going to call on Valerie Washington I think she's GNA introduce somebody and show a video David thank you mayor and councel today um we're going to really follow up with the budget theme that we've had as we prepared the fiscal 24 budget so safe so clean and so green um as I bring up Brandon Bennett and Toby Owens they're going to talk about the efforts that they have in working with Toby Owens group and epire and making sure the city of Fort Worth remains a safe and clean city um through their litter cleanup efforts Brandon and we have a short video do you want to show the video first okay social Enterprise program of the Presbyterian night shelter designed to reduce or remove the barriers uh that our employees face um getting to work getting back Workforce and holding down a city job we run and operate for professional service companies the city of Fort Worth um was one of our first and our longest customers and we work with them across a variety of our Enterprises we started in 2016 with two ups Spire employees our first contract with the city picking up litter along East Lancaster fast forward to today we not only do litter but we do landscaping and animal Sheltering employees for a total of 84 City sponsored employees that is making a difference I work for a company that gives back uh we are here to break any barriers of employment that you may have whether it's Transportation whether it's I don't have my identification where I don't have anywhere to stay anything like that we're here to break all those barriers every time someone moves out of homelessness that is an automatic savings for the overall City uh people that move out tend to use uh fewer city services and when you combine that with full-time employment providing a service for the city it's really been a great partnership I know of no other homeless shelter across this country that is partnered with their local city to provide the number of full-time full benefit positions I just don't know for worth is leading the way and partnering with the homeless shelter to help people get back to work and full-time job uh I love working with the city of Fort Worth uh the city of Fort Worth and UPS Spire together together make a great [Music] partnership thank you guys very much for just the the brief opportunity to be able to share that video it's just such a great partnership between the Presbyterian night shelter UPS spire and the city and it was a Brandon Bennett took a took a chance on our social Enterprise to put people to work and it's really made a difference difference I'm happy to report at the video it was 84 people now it's 91 we've had a few more people Yeah in our total UPS Spire Employment Program we have 175 people that are currently or formally homeless working in full-time jobs full benefits that helps them get an income to move out of homelessness for our lit litter crew that is highlighted in this video through September of this year they picked up over along 13,23 mies throughout Fort Worth 50,7 se4 bags of trash 2,988 tires that's 747 cars four tires for each so it's amazing what they're picking up last year we put back in the hands of the employees $2,260 th000 this year alone through just August we've put back 2,678 th000 back into the the hands of the employees that helps them be able to save to move out of homelessness and really just end this cycle that we are faced with so a big thank you for the city council mayor Parker and the city Staff Brandon Bennett Cody Wittenberg Neil Johnson Debbie Branch James cazelle and Chris M mallister so thank y'all very much for this tremendous partnership because it truly is oneof a kind I know of no other place that the city has taken just day-to-day work that needs to be done but looking at it differently to have more of a purpose than just picking up litter or mowing grass but it really has a purpose to helping the people that do those jobs so thank you for uh this great partnership thank [Applause] you I just want to take just a second that um I want to thank David and Valerie and mayor counsel for letting me serve in a city that cares enough to do programs like this that this this is changing the world so Toby for your leadership and for all of you for your support thank you thank you [Applause] Brandon you both should be commended because I think it took a lot of risk on each of your parts to make that happen and to City management for thinking it was a good idea in the first place um those are that's a hard decision I think to make and it's obviously paid off so to the entire staff thank you very much and to Toby and your team tell them all thank you because there's a lot of people behind the scenes I know that work incredibly hard to make sure UPS Spire stays and productive so thank you for being here today great partnership thank you mayor next I'll call on Chief Davis he's going to remind all of us and uh how to sign up for the code red app chief good afternoon mayor uh members of council Mr cook um we as a city um have been working towards streamlining emergency notifications um the city has an app called code red in front of you is a letter uh that has been generated uh from the fire department and the office Emergency Management to the public that talks about this um the real nice thing about this is we have 500,000 people currently in the city that are signed up for it um there was there's an opportunity to use another software program that the fire department has for uh for uh building familiarization and pre-planning and that program is connected in a in a in a way to code red that allows the public to enter into information that they want us to know that is relevant to them and their families such as special needs uh adults or children in their homes uh people that might be on ventilators that if the power's out for an extended period of time we can pull reports and we can do Wellness checks on and Etc through Rob in the office so it's a it's a nice bridge I I think Chief Aldridge and the police will agree that we have heard from the public their concerns about making sure that special needs interests in the community are um that we are on top of them and that we are uh not reactionary to them and so this is an opportunity for us to tie it all together so what I'm asking you today is that we want to make you aware of it and we will get this to you electronically and we're asking you to help push the messaging to your constituents in the community to make sure that we grow this program right now there's messaging that's going out through Rob and the and the Emergency Management Group we we've been trying to do social media as well um and we tried to use National Night Out as an opportunity to get the information out to the public so that's what we have recently done and we've come before you today to ask for your assistance and pushing it out um I will tell you um last week during the uh National um alert uh testing system there was a uh national issue found with the uh code red app that Rob and his team have been working on um making sure that it wasn't just a local issue that it was a regional and national issue and it has it had to do not just with timing but with the vast amount nationally that information was being pushed out so Rob do you have anything to add to this or I'm here to answer questions okay there you go so thank you very much for your time and please help us get this messaging out and um as part of that make sure people know that there's now a way for them to make us aware of the needs in their homes and their and and their families that that we're really interested in helping them stay on top of the community connect Park Community connect Park that the chief is talking about we worked with uh Miss Rosalinda Mendoza with PD we took we met with some focus groups met with some parents and special needs children and we found that the community connect out or program really fits that need that they have they're worried about their children they're worried about responders First Responders knowing what their children's needs are being able to identify their children rapidly in case of an emergency the the community connect program allows them to go in build a profile for their family they can tell us what their child's needs are what triggers their child if it's flashing lights or Sirens they can tell us what medications their child is on they can include pictures of their child and they can update those that information as necessary so that First Responders always have the latest information available this information is not only available to to fire it's available to PD it's available to code if need be so we're making this program as usable as it can be with the most information possible and putting it out there for all the responders to use in case there's an emergency and to tag one thing additional it's absolutely up to the user and the family as to the information they share there's nothing that's required so I want to make sure that you have that information from us that if anybody ask asks you about that with the information they're giving they're volunteering to give um and there's nothing that we're requiring and their information is secure as well it's use the same level of encryption that Banks use so it's only available to First Responders nobody else out there can get it Michael I just want to make a comment say thank you thank you for this and the expanded sort of Micro Data that you're getting from people I will say that um a couple weeks ago I got a few calls about why didn't the sirens go off why or I didn't hear the sirens that went off but I think this is a much better now we have something to direct people to um much better way of because when the sirens go off I don't think most people know what to do even if the sirens are going off seek shelter what does that mean but I know you give a lot more information here on what's exactly happening so I just want to say thanks this gives something to push out to people when they're saying we don't hear that or they haven't gone off or whatever and I would like to build on that outdoor warning system aspect of it the the outdoor warning system is the designed to let people know that are outside that there's a problem really doesn't say what the problem is it's just a noise but it lets people know in the community that they need to go in seek more information we always recommend they have two or three ways of getting emergency information code rad app is one of those ways the local news media are those ways our social media is a way to get that information but we want them to to go in we want to hear those outdoor warning sirens and go in and seek more information to see what's actually happening and what they can do to protect their families other questions Council thank you all very much thank you thank you let's see next I'm going to call on Dana berdoff just going to recognize um one of our employees about the heartwalk thank you David and thank you mayor and councel uh we're proud that the city of Fort Worth is a long time long-term supporter of the American Heart Association it's one of the ways that we engage employees in thinking about wellness and coming together uh for leadership and and team building opportunities so uh this year the American heartwalk for Taran County was held at our very own Will Rogers Memorial center it was on Saturday uh September 23rd and uh you all may know know that heart disease is the leading cause of death for men and women in the United States so it's very important for us to make sure that our employees are engaged in that topic aware of the issues and and that we're supporting them in uh lifestyle changes and education um and to that effort I want to thank and honor and recognize uh Ellen Pierce uh Ellen is the city's wellness program coordinator she's a health educator within our HR department uh but she and her team uh do Yan's effort every year both for the heartwalk uh with our our health fair that's coming up and other events throughout the year to make sure that our employees uh have the best opportunities uh to take care of themselves and their families so I'd like to call up Ellen to provide some highlights uh from the heartwalk this year in our fundraising effort so Ellen thank you Dana thank you Council mayor city manager thanks everyone for being here um so as Dana said we had a very successful uh heartwalk this year again um we've partnered with the American Heart Association for 19 years and we are always the biggest team out there uh our presence is very well known and um so I want to show some pictures today and some statistics as well um this does occur annually every year in September um 1 million people across 300 cities in America participate including the city of Fort Worth um participating in the heartwalk um as Dana said uh helps raise money for the American Heart Association to fund that life-saving research and advocate for healthier communities improve patient care and work for Equitable health for all people um heart disease as you said is the leading uh cause of death for both men and women in the US and worldwide and it's also one of the highest risk factors for our city employees which is what our wellness program is all about and those are the ones we serve um so our history uh We've participated as I said since 2005 and um we even during the year of coid in 2020 we uh participated virtually so um we had city employees walking at home and sending me their pictures and I put it all in a collage and everyone kind of celebrated still the event um that year um we've had um in the last 19 years we've had over 300 teams we've had over 3,000 Walkers and over $200,000 raised and here are the 2023 stats so this year we had 24 teams which meant 24 team coaches and we had 321 Walkers and $1,223 raised so you can see our big team there it looks like they have on blue shirts but actually the shirts are gray I'm going to show that shirt in just a minute in tarant County they had 104 teams and we were the top fundraiser and we had the most number of walkers at the event so you all should be proud and um I'm not going to take credit for that I have a lot of people um uh on to to thank today and I'll get to that in just a moment um but you can see that um overall in tarant County they had 1,831 Walkers and 374,000 raised um as a county all right so now I have to um you know give some prizes here um Tony rouso is he here it's Tony here uh he was uh their team the FMS team um raised the most money so you can see how much money they raised in second place Patricia Garcia um as far as funds raised um HR was number three um Community or um Communications and public engagement was number four and CMO um Selena I think she was a oneman show I think she had she did this all on her own raised $1,413 so um you can see the top five teams as far as fundraising and here are some pictures um I want to point out in the left on the left there Randy aosta he is our he has just become our heartwalk mascot he wears the costume every year so um he works out at Hazel Harvey um so you can see the FMS team um uh Tony and in his group and some others you might notice in these other pictures here it's a lot of fun um all right this is uh yeah this is pti's team and she she um got her team go in this year and uh these are some of the picture collages that she put together as you can see it's very festive it's very fun and it's amazing to me that we can get these city employees out on a Saturday okay it is not a work day it is not on work time it is on a Saturday it's out at Will Rogers and they bring their families they bring their dogs they bring their kids they bring this year we saw a first we somebody brought a goat they walked the goat I've never seen that before but anyway it is a lot of fun and these city employees really get into it it's so encouraging now let's talk about um number of Walkers these are the top five um teams that had the most walkers on their team registered for their team so Sharon gamble was number one um communication and public engagement um and then Tony's team was number two you can see how many Walkers were on his team HR was number three uh Kimberly juts team in water she was number four and then finally Lane uh Zarate she um is with tpw and she was number five and I want to mention that lane also helped me with a lot um she helped create a bake sale flyer that was one of our big fundraisers this year and she also helped me with some it things that made my job a lot easier so she was teaching me some new tricks this this year on the computer that made things a lot easier for me so I have her to think as well all right more pictures as you can see our mascot um teams at the Finish Line um and there's Dianna and our HR team at the uh starting line getting ready to go um that's where I saw the goat um and so some other people that you might recognize in these pictures just lots of fun we took hundreds of pictures so you can imagine it was hard to pick which ones to put up here all right so a big thank you um uh for anyone who supported either you came to the bake sale you donated funds you um you know Pro uh helped get Walkers there you actually came to the event um first of all I couldn't do this without team coaches those team coaches they're the ones that go out into their departments and recruit Walkers right and they create enthusiasm and they get people on board so I I mean the credit goes to them Sharon gamble if you know her she's my biggest cheerleader and she's my partner in crime with this um she um they donate the t-shirts every year the team t-shirt so that we all when we get to the heartwalk I mean there's masses of people we can find each other easy because we all look the same right so we have to have a team t-shirt and their Department uh donates that to us every year Jason mcgreger I don't know if you know Jason but he's a graphic designer and he's a city employee um in uh communication in public engagement and he always designs our t-shirt every year so I wanted to show you this year's t-shirt um on the front is always our logo Fort Worth right and this year it looks kind of like a torch this ah Jason designs it every year and this was his design for 2023 they're very popular obviously the the city employees enjoy getting their free t-shirt uh Susan Peterson she's in municipal court and she was big in organizing the bake sale um and that was a big fundraiser that raised a lot of money actually so it came from her and I know she got a lot of help from Selena allaha because she um wasn't quite sure how to start all that and how to reserve space Etc um and finally I did have a steering committee this year for the first time um and so I want to thank um Mark I hope I'm saying his name right Mark Al alala with Will Rogers Dana bergd off Joanne Hinton benefits manager um my super supervisor Anna Ayala um also Sharon gamble Whitney Rodriguez and Amanda Rees Amanda was our marketing um specialist so she helped market and get city employees engaged and informed any questions for me thank you thank you any [Applause] questions thank you next I'm going to call on Dianna gordano to recognize some of our employees are graduates from a program here I'm actually here on behalf of assistant city manager Jess mcachran who couldn't be here today so I'm going to recognize 11 graduates of the city's inaugural emerging leaders program and so as I call their name if they will kindly join me but first let me tell you what is the emerging leaders it's basically a leadership pathway that was started in support of team members that are either currently in leadership roles or that aspired to be in leadership roles and so many of the emerging leaders came from our young professionals affinity group and participants completed a number of different courses Franklin Ki modules and met by monthly to discuss them so those courses included everything from having a difficult conversation creating Employee Engagement and building High trust as a leader they spent over 18 hours uh individually in kind of preparing for that course content participating in the training and even doing some homework associated with that their dedication and commitment to the city of Fort Worth will help shape the future generation of Future Leaders because they'll also be joining us in the emerging leaders cohort 2 program where they will help in specialized training but also serving as mentors to those that aspire to be Future Leaders for the city of Fort Worth so join me in recognizing the following 11 graduates we have Martha Collins who couldn't join us today but Martha has been with us oh she did join us today four years with the city in the economic development uh Department she currently serves as the Strategic development and Rehabilitation Cor coordinator she was recognized this past January for being named to the emerging local government leaders top 100 government influencers list for 2022 congratulations Martha Rebecca Rebecca Doyle who could not join us today with the city of in Park and Recreation she currently serves as a contract Services administrator and was the president of the city of Fort wors young professionals or organization Andrew Goodman has nearly served a three years in the city uh development services department currently serving as an inim engineering manager Andrew we have Margot Gordon uh three years with the city in Park and Recreation currently serving as the graffiti abatement program coordinator we also have Tabitha guest who spent nearly seven years in two different city departments but currently serving in library as the Outreach Services Supervisor Timothy Hayden with nine years in two City uh departments currently in diversity and inclusion as a civil rights investigator Daniel leech who's served with us for 12 years um in Park and Recreation in multiple roads currently serving as a business process analyst and as the vice president of the young Professionals for the city of Fort Worth stevenh Nichols with more than 11 years of City tenure in two different departments currently serving as the stormw water program manager in tpw Avery P pesek who's had five years in two City departments was recently promoted to the senior environmental planner and the keep Fort Worth beautiful coordinator Dakota Shaw nearly eight years with City Hall in the aviation Department currently serving as airport operations manager at meum airport and Cody Wittenberg eight years with the city in Code Enforcement now serving as the inim Director of the new Environmental Services Department so join me in congratulating our inaugural class of the emerging leader program squeeze in go thank you congratulations all thank you very much thank you everybody thanks Tiana next our informal reports y'all can stay for work session look they're all leaving they all have jobs to do yeah they have work to do yeah uh let's see informal reports we'll do the first two at the same time those are on sales tax updates one for June 2023 and one for July 2023 and Clay Pearson's available if there are any questions all right moving on the next informal report is on the proposed 2024 council meeting schedule and Janette Goodall is available if there are any questions yeah I got a question not a question but a thought I know what okay um no comment needed um but just to throw out there um I looked on here and I see that we have uh 17 public comment meetings and then and um combined with zoning council meeting and day meetings is about 20 um and I looked on here I think there's there's about six months out of here that we only have one public comment meeting uh April we actually have three um just throwing out there's proposal I'm always about giving our community an opportunity to speak uh and I know this actually murals last year so it's not nothing that we done different from when we changed over to this site CLE but I called it this time I'm I propose if we talk about this at a later dat uh the there's three months that we only have one there are six actually that we only have one public meeting but I picked out three months uh it was the month of January the month of June and the month of November if at all possible um I think we will have to call a special meeting or if we able to add public comment to the end of the day meeting which we're not staying here later uh but to give opportunity for people who would like to speak um on this agenda I picked those dates again uh because if you look at uh January is only one June is only one and November is only one so that's just something that I want to throw out there for discussion and we can discuss later or we can make those changes and however Janette when are we voting on the calendar so we'll bring it back um hopefully on October 31st perfect just a thought thank you for and typically those just have one because those months also have one or more holidays in the month so it it gets kind of tricky uh I will also point out to you that in November you do there is a tentative public comment scheduled on Election Day so I just want to make sure youall have noticed that as well yeah I did want to bring that up and say I think we should probably cancel that one and invite people to go vote that night instead um I would also remind that everybody has our phone numbers and our emails anytime they want to express any opinion or anything they can always contact us uh so that's open and we also if there's an actual agenda item they can speak at those meetings to about the agenda item so I would say there plenty of opportunities for the public to engage not just the public comment meeting Elize I would second canceling that um public comment meeting um on the election night yeah gotta concur with my personally I have spoken in person in meetings with many of our most prolific public commenters um and I feel like I have covered my basis so if they want to come at one of those meetings that's perfect and otherwise it's not uncommon for all of us to follow up with individuals that come to council before and after to make sure that their very legitimate issues are heard and that City staff is responding as quickly as possible so I encourage us all to keep doing that as we move forward but to Chris's point if you have any other feedback prior to that October 31st date that'd be great Janette anything else that's it I just need to know if you want us to amend the schedule to I vote on it as is other than the November but sounds like Chris has got some ideas there and you'll probably have to be prepared for that when we vote on it and open session any other comments Council perfect all right next informal report is on the city's Deferred Compensation Plan and Dian Giordano and Reggie Zeno is available if there any questions all right the next one is uh military partnership skillbridge and Hiring Our Heroes I have some questions and Diana is available if there are any questions bless you all right yes thank you so much for um undertaking this pretty enormous effort to get it um going in the city of Fort Worth I know I personally appreciate it um so thank you for that my next question is where are we on advertising and hiring the city of Fort Worth's veteran liaison position okay so that's a a question that we are working through to get the a job description um just finalized to make sure that it's prepared to recruit appropriately and so we're working with the Department that's responsible for that process what can we do to speed up that process because it has been entirely too long to get that person on board so how can I be helpful and I'm going to volunt told um my colleague Mr Lor over there as well I think let us work through kind of just following up with the Department I and if we need assistance I can reach out to both of you directly so that we can get it advertised and maybe even some recruitment sources where we can post it and publicize it to attract the right individual great thank I really appreciate that um then my next question is you said the word advertise so what are we doing to advertise our new programs and how are we going to make sure that we're we're not just a shallow reach here but that we're really going in depth and pulling the best and the brightest uh into these programs that would be the Army there for you Charlie in case you were curious who I was talking about when I said best and brightest two very different programs with the skillbridge program we actually adver our opportunities using the Department of Defense site where we attract individuals to roles that we advertise there we uh took a few months to get an agreement through the Department of Defense but now we can use that to expand upon other opportunities and much like you heard code here earlier with the um initiative with the homeless they've actually volunteered to lead this effort with our first Department of Defense program and so we um are very excited to kind of get that underway and that's particularly with kind of just the animal services um we're hoping that sets kind of of the parameters in the foundation to expand it to other departments we know the water utility is highly interested we know that others are interested in well and creating additional pipelines on Hiring Our Heroes it's a little reverse and so we're depart we're skillbridge we're advertising on their site hire Our Heroes they're sending us qualified applicants that are transitioning out of the military that we can then job match with open opportunities and then route those to departments or encourage them to recruit and advertise or apply for our jobs so that we can get good talent with the organization across you know a very highly specialized uh field of individuals thanks I think we all knew I'd have something to say about this so I'm super excited about this um and for anyone that may be at home who or here that may not understand exactly how skillbridge works I've seen it put into action essentially it's SI it's up to six months of Free Labor that the city could be getting out of this which is which is great it allows that that veteran wants his Commanding Officer says yes we can go without you for the last six months of your contract they then go into a partnership with the city or the police department or fire whoever it may be that's involved in this um that is their appointed place of Duty so the military is paying them their full pay their full benefits and that industry partner they're not paying anything so they're out of pocket zero uh so I actually approached Chief Aldridge about this um uh last month and they the police department is doing something similar on their civil service side but not on the uh sauren side but there is a chance where you could actually start the pipeline for police training or fire training uh going through the academy um all at zero expense to the city so I think this is amazing I'm glad we're finally doing it I know anything that has to do with the government it's going to be a slow process I've seen the process because I'm actually working with the uh forward chamber as well and getting a lot of their their Partners to uh enroll in the goldbridge program because it's a b it's a win-win for everyone um so I think especially with the city of Fort Worth I actually looked this morning on the OSD site um I didn't see anything for the city coming up at yet in any of the uh the positions that are available but we're not only relying on on Hiring Our Heroes right because I know that's just the fellowship program so we're an actual approved um correct okay yeah it's an approved program through the Department of Defense yes okay so on the OSD side so those is the only one that's going to be advertised just that one um one in code or I mean I I'd hope that all the Departments are coming for saying hey we want to take part in this because you're going to get I think a ton of applicants you know saying hey this is a great pipeline for us so is that what we're doing yes and so we started with code because the partnership originally originated and the interest started with code and just kind of K9 handling and Animal Care um and so we did present this David Cook allowed us to pres present it at the last department head and we've got a lot of interest from there so we're looking at just expanding that program of course it does take time through through DOD but that's our effort now is to kind of look at different areas where we can expand the program and at the end of each of those six year or that six-month commitment is the guarant interview so we're looking at targeting positions that have high vacancy rates or availability of job opportunities so that we create that Pipeline and then opportunities for them to actually compete for those jobs okay awesome yeah anything I can ever do to help out with any of this uh bio me I'm going to start working together more closely with uh the naval station there again with the forward chamber and you ask the the mayor and David I'm trying to do all sorts of different things with the veteran veter own small businesses Etc so let me know how I can be a part of that perfect thank you I've got a question Dian I I don't think people around the table know the other outside resources you have you know which is direct contact with at least 30 major Employers in the Dallas Fort Worth area with a focus on Military hiring I'm hoping the closing date for this position will not be before November 9th because that's when the big red white and blue job fair takes place in Arlington which is hosted by uh Workforce Solutions of Teran County you know my company will be there as will a number of other employers and so if you I don't want this to be rushed but if it goes before November 9th you know maybe we can get those resources to you when you post this job and those people who would attend red white and blue won't be left out appreciate that we'll take that into consideration with the timing okay thanks thank you next informal report is on Police Department investigative procedures involving stolen firearms and assistant chief Julie sren is available if there are any questions all right the next informal report is on priority for filling police vacancies and assistant Chief Joseph Sparrow is available if there any questions no question I think it's just worth an update I have question got that he's coming thanks chief for coming up um I know this is a a relatively big Topic in District Six and so it called you up just because I think it's important for the record for folks to know all the work that y'all are doing to try to fill the vacancies that we have well good afternoon mayor counsel and uh city manager cook so in filling these vacancies right now we have several classes that are going on and obviously before the 63 positions new positions came in in October our fiscal year we were down 145 officers which is quite a bit but right now we are actually running through three Academy classes Academy class 155 um is going to graduate 20 as of this time right now and uh 156 right now we have 52 in that one and we also have a um a Leo's class which is our lateral law enforcement that's going that has 17 right now so we're pushing really hard to actually get enough people in the academy and and assistant chief Aldridge is really working hard to do that he's trying to get the bigger classes as far as as because we can get more people in uh and if we can somehow stop attrition that would help as well thank you sir uh thank you I have a couple questions I asked for this ir and one of the reasons why I asked because I was concerned on some of our teams um such as the Hope team and their classification of filling vacancies uh when I'm looking at page two the priorities for filling vacancies uh if I'm reading this correct uh the order is direct response units first the gain units second Academy instructors third Patrol fourth and all other units am I reading that pretty straightforward well not necessarily so our violent crime initiative what we're trying to do is we're trying to keep those units at least the officers the ones who are enforced we're trying to keep them full because one one of the priorities of the city is to decrease violent crime sure so we want to make sure our Dru units they're they're they're fully staffed and Our Gang units as far as just the the enforcement officers are fully staffed but our number one priority in the city is Patrol because when people call for the police they expect for somebody to show up at their door they expect for somebody to respond to their call so that's one of the reasons why we're pushing as far as trying to keep Patrol as full as possible where does the Hope team f in the uh response of been field The Hope team is an important I mean just like a lot of our other units are very very important The Hope team is very important so um hope team is our homeless Outreach team and and they go out and they actually work with City Cod and they they get rid of the camps and they they they deal with that but the Hope unit has to fall second place to answering calls now I I look at it like this the city you've got to have people working at the Academy so that they can get people trained so we can get them out there so we have to train them you have to have people answering calls that's very important because people when they call for police they want police to show up then we need people to investigate those calls our our detectives um after that all of these units they're great they're they're necessary especially for a large city but um we have to just show priorities when we're hurting we just have to show priorities so take for instance a CIT team Crisis Intervention team that's something that's huge here in Fort Worth so you guys gave us extra people for that we're very uh grateful so what we're going to do with the crisis intervention team is we're going going to fill all of those vacancies we're going to fill every last one of them but after they get trained we're going to send them back to patrol to their patrol areas and they're going to work there whether it be first shift second shift whether it's Central whether it's wests side whether it's Northside they'll be there and our Communications people will have a list of those officers who are trained so that we'll have more people trained I want to train as many CIT people as possible and put them out there but we still have to answer the calls so we can't really do that with the Hope team so the Hope team they they um they they're they're specialized in what they do so we're going to to fill those as we can but we have to have our priorities in line and you said they file as number two excuse me they file as number two as a priority no I didn't say they follow as number two it's just Patrol has to be the first priority and everything else after that okay but I'm asking where do they file on the priority list I can't give you a number as far as where they fall so but they they are an important unit they're important unit I mean well everything that deals with the police department is an important unit I I I I don't think that's an argument here I don't think we have an argument at all I'm just asking a simple question right um so number one you said Patrol is first Patrol we have to answer call okay and then go ahead and give me a list down from Patrol everything else falls under that after that it's according to need so we need we need to to to have our violent crime initiative fully stabed so that we can respond to those calls okay so in here I don't see um do can you is it on page three that shows us where um patrol is lacking or the vacancies I do see yes if you if you look at the um the little chart that I gave you where it says Patrol Central at the time that this was was compiled had 19 vacancies East had 10 South had 18 North had 11 Northwest four and West four so those are the main as far as our divisions that answer calls and so the far right corner does it break down these 191 and 18 or is it it's additional no it's not going to break down the 1910 and 18 those so additional these okay so okay if if you look if you look at the deal okay the First Column is the Bureau okay that's led by an assistant chief the second column is a command it's led by a deputy chief third Columns of division usually led by captains or commanders fourth column section they're led by lieutenant and the fifth column are unit so what what what they are is they're broken down so take for instance we look at traffic the uh the division is traffic although they're under South South command um they're um they're part of the enforcement unit they have three motor vacancies and a um commercial vehicle uh enforcement okay so that's how that that breaks down sure I'm not going to relate the time any further I do think that we probably need a presentation on this I the chart mean it is what it is um yeah um a concern in particular about vacancies or certain divisions that you're hearing about from constituents yeah the hope and the CIT okay uh that they are kind of at the bottom line of being F when it comes to vacancies being okay he said CIT is is at no they're not hope well I'm looking it's five there vacan right here so no but I'm saying what we're going to do is we're going to feel those we need to train them no i' like hear Let Let Chief finish I'm just foration so we are going to train we are going to fill all of those vacancies we're going to feel that we're going to feel as far as the ones that you gave us this year we're going to f them all it just takes time to train them so so we were waiting for this particular period to kick in which is in October to where we actually have positions and they're going to to put a vacancy announcement out and they're going to fill all of those and they're going to train them so they're going to be taken away from Patrol for a while to be trained and on a monthly basis or so whenever they train they get to they get to go back and all that but they're going to be out there going to be trained they're going to be working um as CIT officers but they're going to stay in their patrol position to answer calls so it it's and that's why it's very difficult doing this because you can't really put a priority on things because everything is important especially in the city as larg as foot worth and we're we're doing our best because we care about this city we love the city we come here we work every day in this city and we give our all to do what we can but within all of these there has to be priorities especially when your numbers are short somebody it's it's it's like in a in in a in a football game somebody has to win somebody has to lose in a track me somebody has to win somebody has to lose so there has to be a first place and the second place and you have to have those priorities in order to get things done you make priorities in the decisions you make every day we all do so this is something that we have to do and and it's difficult because like I told um uh we were at in council member Block's uh meeting that he had the other day and and it was like it was like okay so when when you're when you're short on numbers like it's kind of like having kids right right if if if you don't have enough money to feed them so what kid are you going to feed today and what are you going to feed them you have to make priorities and and that's all we're doing it's not it's not that these things are not important they're very important but people want their calls answered and and as I mentioned in here not only are the numbers shorter in Patrol but it the people who are out on o days or the people were out on light duty or every time somebody's promoted we we all always fill our promoted ranks our our corporals every time there's a a promotion there's a trickle down effect and it goes all the way down to patrol as far as our Patrol officers um at least our officers and and uh we lose people that way so I our our Patrol really need they need a morale boost so I try to do everything we possibly can to help them I appreciate your answer I think you guys are doing a great job so I don't want you to think at by any means that I'm challenging what you're doing I'm just asking I asked for this IR because I had some concerns of the priorities you answered those questions so I appreciate that um so but I do think we may can get a a more presentation on at a later time Council M crane yeah thanks uh Chief you said something about winners and losers I just want to say they're all winners we're glad to have them as part of the police department oh yeah I was just making the point that you're trying to make is that it takes Sometimes some extra training the patrols can get online faster thank you for fixing me here um the patrols we we can get online F thanks faster the other specialized need a need more training and they'll go in and out of that point I really wanted to make overall because I feel I always have to advocate for this is when you look at the uh the numbers here for patrol um you've got North at 11 Northwest at four which I understand we've got to put some more resources up into those areas west though four and I get continually the same thing that North Northwest gets on the west side and remember the west division runs from around uh West 7th area all the way out to Parker County and Walsh so I do want to make sure we look at that that's not only District nine those are four vacancies yes that's what I'm saying but I just want to put on the record too that we have need to not not what we're doing up the north northwest where we're trying to play catch up with the resources that are needed up there but in the future we also need to continue to look to the West part of Fort Worth again that's District 9 district 7 District three are all in comped within that I just want to put that on the record that it's a it's a big part and a growing part of Fort Worth and I'm sure everybody else is going to look at it from district 6 it might touch West might part touch part of District Six let's just look at that for the future as this training goes through without a doubt thank you and Northwest division serves too and that's still a growing area as well yes but South has the high that's your problem demon played right into his hand great Council B I'm making sure you're okay you're good yeah I'm just waiting on priority repair okay very well thank you Chief we appreciate you all right thank you have a great day all right the next informal report is on the priority repair program and Victor Turner is available if there any questions yes please Victor and I have some I have some commentary while Victor's on his way and I want to thank him for his advocacy but during our last discussion on priority repair I I mentioned some things in terms of where this information needs to be shared I want this new Council to know that historically we started out with only five grand that we would award for each applicant who was approved for years I Lobby to raise that dollar and luckily when Victor Turner came on board he was able to get that up to the price you see now if you look at the numbers you'll see historically and this goes way back to at least 2012 District 8 has always been the leading District in in utilizing These funds we tried to raise awareness in poly as well as stop six just so you know the numbers are tweaking up there but what had happened through the years it was only promoted through the areas that were known as high poverty areas now you can look at the 2022 count and you'll see that every district has utilized money from this fund what I want to see is for us to make sure everyone knows that this money is available and I'll be relying on community engagement I have a a billboard right now as a test at stal cup and Elgen talking about littering and since that billboard has been up there's no trash around that area whatever we need to do to raise awareness about priority repair in all districts we need to be able to do that because if there is someone in your District whose house is in disrepair and they may have to leave because they couldn't afford the repairs they would be glad to know about this information and so that's my segue into hearing what Victor is going to share today but I encourage all council members to work with Community engagement and make sure we get this word out to all the citizens of Fort wor people initially thought we were going to take their house nobody wants their house but the information needs to be shared because the funds are there thank you mayor thank you Gina any other questions for Victor Victor how many what percentage of those folks that participate in the partty Repair actually use the full 25,000 of funding uh we just raised it like last year so we're just now starting to get those numbers up but um we anticipate several will because we we were very limited before and the repairs far exceeded what we had for a dollar amount so we anticipate more them being close to the the limit so before this did what percentage of folks use the full amount before it was a 5,000 as Council $5,000 yes yeah and and council member Martinez you should know that a number of people wouldn't even apply because they had more than $5,000 needed for repair and again the misinformation that if you you could lose your house to the city and so there there were a number of reasons for people not even seeking it but $25,000 is attractive enough for people to want to make application Chris go ahead uh quick question uh do we have so working with uh Sumer our seniors um I know we have our office have had people come up and we had to assist them with getting through navigating through the process because it couldn't be a little rigget um some of them are two or three pages some of them are a few more do we have a place where they can citizens can come and fill out the application with staff yeah sure they can go to Hazel Harvey peace okay um on that second floor that's where our uh rehab team is and there's be somebody there to help them with their application thank you thank you Victor and the final informal report is on the fiscal year 2024 storm water utility fee increase and Jennifer Dyke is available if there any questions I don't have any questions I just really want to thank the entire storm water team for all of the really hard work they've done U to get us to this point and also to help us look forward into the future so Jennifer um and her team and Lauren thank youall all so much for for doing this this is so so important thank you mayor that concludes my report okay David thank you rolling into our agenda first is any questions regarding change in memberships to boards or commissions to the upcoming council meeting any questions regarding significant zoning cases for October 17th and any questions regarding the city council M andc log for October 17th 2023 Miss Hill um I have two questions um the first one is on number five on the consent agenda the water wheel I don't know who would be the right person to ask about that Brandon it should not be on it has consent agenda Code Compliance oh I'm sorry or the water wheel the water wheel yes we the water wheel is on for October 17th I'm sorry I was thinking of a different agenda item okay what was your question Macy I missed it sorry oh so I have several about it um the first one do we know how much it's going to cost the city yes I believe that we are putting in you know I don't have my notes in front of me I think we're putting in 350,000 the trwd is also putting in 350,000 we have some private fundraisers that have also put forth I believe a little over 200,000 okay um the city we are covering that private donation of 200,000 just to get it started and then we will get reimbursed by the private fundraiser so is it actually going to pick up litter or is it more education tool what's the it is going to pick up litter and it picks it up um really really well after it's rainy and the river moving um it will pick up some litter when it's still but there is a lot more activity in picking up when there's movement in the river especially after a storm um but it is more just I mean it will be useful it will um help remove litter from the river and keep it clean um as well as being an attraction that people would want to maybe come and see and watch it work where will it be and has the core already signed off on it they have it's going to be at the Clear Fork um the Clear Fork there's two branches um I can send you a map to show you which branch of the Clear Fork I believe it's the left the left branch of that um the trwd has secured the permits from the Army Corps um so the Project's moving forward okay and how long will it stay um it has a useful life of over 20 years I know I was kind of surprised to find that out myself but it's 20 year useful life um as part of the ongoing maintenance which is shared 5050 by the city and the trwd um if we realize that we want to replace that that it's some you know a commodity we want in our community we'll make sure that we peel off some of that maintenance funding to put in toward replacing the water wheel okay perfect thank you thank you thanks Val then uh mayor I have one more question about the affordable housing resolution yes and Council I think you have a copy of it in front of you or I did at least thank you Fernando well it's not in the MNC log it's they it was emailed to us earlier yes okay so the new language about um specifically calling out um adus why are we specifically calling those out in the res resolution I think I understood the resolution to be a study on Middle Market housing in general so I don't understand why we're calling it out specifically yeah we are proposing to conduct a study on expanding housing options in Fort Worth to include what we call missing middle housing and accessory dwelling units or adus those are the two forms of housing that we contemplate studying uh as to their feasibility and desirability uh in different parts of Fort Worth as appropriate uh we anticipate coming to you uh with an MNC authorizing a contract for that study in the next few weeks I don't know that we have a date yet but it should be either uh later this month or sometime in November when you get that MNC in the meantime we did not want to imply by adopting the neighborhood conservation plan and housing affordability strategy we did not want to imply that we were endorsing the expansion of accessory dueling units in view of the discussion that you had at a recent u city council meeting in which some neighborhood leaders expressed concerns about adus we subsequently held a very well attended informational meeting we had a lot of folks uh representing neighborhood organizations across the city we had a lot of folks expressing interest uh in uh developing accessory dwelling units in their own neighborhoods uh we did not seek to build consensus around the issue it was merely an informational meeting I think uh uh folks who were in attendance at that meeting expressed satisfaction with the uh proposed substitute resolution which essentially would not commit the city one way or the other uh pending completion of this study that we propos to undertake uh the study would include participation by uh a diverse and balanced uh group of neighborhood leaders and Builders and others who have an interest uh in different forms of housing uh we believe uh that uh the uh affordable housing strategy presents for our consideration a a broad menu of ideas that we can explore uh without committing to any of those ideas specifically uh so for example earlier today uh the neighborhood quality and revitalization committee received a thorough briefing on Community Land Trust that's one of many ideas that have been brought forward to us uh in the housing affordability strategy it does not commit us to expend any funds or to enact any regulations is either broadening or restricting uh those land uses and so uh we believe that this substitute resolution uh goes about as far as it can uh meaningfully to uh endorse uh the overall housing affordability strategy without committing the city specifically to take any uh action on those recommendations but I think you just hit the nail on the head on why I'm hesitant about it because it does sound like this is endorsing but with the new language too that we're endorsing or planning to already support contr but we're not I think the language needs to be a little bit more broad I'm I'm very we have to have a proactive affordable housing study done but I think it needs to be more broadly termed out instead of just saying we're specifically calling out adus and I don't understand why we're doing that we're not calling out called out because that was the issue that was the issue that can we not take that language out why do we have to include that specifically we're trying to respond to the council's concerns the council expressed concern about any implication that you were endorsing accessory dwelling units and so we wanted to make it clear that you're not specifically endorsing accessory dwelling units or any other specific elements of the housing affordability strategy Fernando quick question for you in the meeting that you held that was well attended was their reaction to this res revised language we actually discussed the language word for word okay most of that language came from one of the neighborhood organizations of far north worth the the North Fort Worth Alliance suggested much of the highlighted language uh and then uh in response to comments that we got at the informational meeting we added uh further language to make it clear that we were not prohibiting property owners for from applying for zoning changes or otherwise seeking uh to build accessory to all units under our current regulations uh we we talk through uh all of those key provisions of the resolution with with everybody who was in attendance and we asked him are you okay with this and they said yes we're good with it and so it's surprising to hear that uh anyone who might have been associated with that meeting uh isn't uh isn't satisfied and council member Hill are you hearing from people that this new proposed language is may be still problematic it's still I think it's still problematic I think we're we're being very specific about calling out adus and I at the request of the council yes no but the the reason I asked for the continuance is to better understand what we're dealing with and I think people still in the language when I first read this it did jump out at me as if the city is pushing adus and we're going to look at the study but we're it's something we want to call out and so I'm just giving you my feedback on that that I don't think it needs to be included in this resolution and I have a comment too mayor okay and council member Beck and then council member bans sure uh I actually like the addition or including adus in there and I think um for those of us that had the Ben I say benefit or privilege Joy of going through the uh the short-term Rental process um what I hope we what I Envision as we move through this is something very similar to that um as we had moved through that process it was well is it neighborhood specific is it City specific and there was a lot of dialogue and so I think including adus in here one puts people on alert if they don't want adus they're going to keep their eye on this ball and they're going to be engaged and participate in the process I think it also opens the door for us to have that um that deliberative process with our neighborhoods about you know when what how if ever adus are appropriate for their particular um community and so that's why I'm in favor of of keeping it it does call it out but it calls it out in a way that says it's not binding we're not going to do anything but it does open the door for us to continue to study that as a potential um a potential Avenue for for addressing the middle Housing Council rivens Council staff has always heard me talk about perception versus reality and the feedback that I'm getting from people it gives the impression that the city you know is you know in in the tank with adus I don't have a remedy for it but I would also just make sure that we at least get some input from Community engagement to see if there's any way we could accommodate the concern that council member heel has and I have it too I had a similar conversation with Transportation people yesterday how we how we scribe things often lets people know where we are and I have heard from people not just in my district but the idea that the city appears to be embracing adus thank you Council M bons um maybe one potential solution as we consider this prior to the 17th Council if you have the resolution in front of you um on the the first page the SEC it's the second to last um whereas Clause I think is probably where your most concern is there's a potential you could take that Clause out and leave the rest of it as is because the last whereas Clause States in in and says the following whereas the city council acknowledges there may be value associated with adus as a form of affordable housing wishes to reserve support for the broader development of this housing form pending its review and approval of recommendations from the perspective study because ultimately we just want the study to commence and we know ad is going to be a part of it but I think what council member Hill is Raising is we don't want to overly endorse adus as the best form of zoning I know that's not what we're doing but to Gina's point I think there's a perception and I'm saying all this with an Adu in my backyard that my mother lives in so I'm the biggest proponent of an Adu that there is so I'll just say that we wouldn't survive without it council member crane that's what I just wanted to point out I think as part of this we need to decouple and I appreciate what you said too but decu the conversation of adus and short-term rentals because there is so much more we're talking about this Middle Middle Market housing that we need to have that conversation as we grow and neighborhoods can decide that they want adus so their mother mother-in-laws I don't want my mother-in-law husband want you it's true that that is a something else that we have as an option or it may be renters these things have existed for a long period of time and and they will and they serve a purpose so I think we just need to decouple the short-term rental from Adu with everything moving forward and I think that's where a lot of neighborhood angst has come instead of really looking at this as a housing option in the affordable housing conversation Michael and if I could add on that I think some of the fear too is that we're going to allow the building of additional units and so as as I've gotten feedback um so I I like that we want to have the conversation I think we should have the conversation um I think it goes well in the resolution I think we can have the conversation without putting in the resolution if we need to um but thank you for hiring um that consultant to kind of lead us through that study yeah well mayor pram and my other Council colleagues and yall said it a little bit more eloquently than I did but um I think it's just the language and that's what it comes down to and so if we can get agreeance on acknowledging I mean I was just at the tml board meeting Gina was there and there was a whole session about short-term rentals so much of this is out of our control right now and it's still caught up in um several different lawsuits and so that's why we have cleal doing such a great job but some of this as do consider adus to to Michael's Point even if we try to uncouple it now from short tone rals there's maybe very little we can actually do in enforcement especially in the next year so Mary would you like for us to remove the first highlighted Warehouse Club I'm just offering that as an option maybe you Circle that around with council members prior to that that next meeting and then we can make a decision from the D happy to do whatever I would say you ra to pull your hair out Fernando but it's already gone it's already gone so but had there been any you're doing great Fernando than so much we appreciate you thank you Fernando I I have a request I knew Fernando when he had hair so you know the way things are now it's just normal but it would be good I don't I don't mean any slight but it would be good if staff when they're presenting to US during these very challenging times if there's anything that triggers attention from Austin people I'm telling you we don't want it and you know the last thing we want to be is in in in Austin sites because they're fighting us at local control on every item and so when when sap is presenting if there's something that's sensitive to Austin or where we could be at risk I'm depending on you guys to let us know David what was that I said got it okay we don't want to get in trouble with them mayor and and just for the record I like Fernando's haircut he don't have a haircut he don't have any okay Council we're just getting started with presentations are we good okay first one briefing on the Stockyards Transportation study tpw Raj Gupta is GNA present along with Jeff Whitaker with kimley horn I know council member Flores is very excited to see this oh yeah long time in coming uh good afternoon uh mayor and council member rajes Gupta City traffic engineer transportation and Public Works uh today we are going to brief you about the trans Stockard Transportation study uh as we know stock cat has seen a substantial growth and uh and we wanted to look at for more comprehensive way to see what we can do to improve redu improve pesan safety uh reduce congestion uh do better circulation address on street parking issues and this study particularly look into these short-term long-term and medium-term recommendation to create a road map for future infrastructure that okay we got the study done how we going to look at in the future and what we can do to improve as I said earlier The Pedestrian safety reduce congestion and I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all the stakeholder advisory committee especially council member Flores they have provided great input and feedback throughout the study without them without their feedbook feedback it may not be the study which we are looking at so without further delay I would like to introduce uh Jeff Vier uh vice president kry horn who will walk you through the study good [Music] afternoon um I think it's side I'm gonna switch sides so I can the as raj mentioned the Stockyards have a have seen tremendous growth over the last few years since 2017 there's five million more visitors of the Stockyards so with success comes challenges so one of the challenges is transportation and parking so that's really what this was looking at we tried to take a comprehensive Transportation assessment we actually tried to start this project with the stakeholder Committee of you know what are the issues out there really to develop a traffic safety multimodal and accessibility assessment of the stock guards and really to understand um as the previous presentation was out there what are our priorities and what can we tackle first that's really what we were trying to to understand and at the end of the day developed a road map short-term midterm and long-term recommendations so a little bit about the engagement process um I want to Echo what Raj said is we had five meeting meetings with our um stakeholder committee we kicked it off in November 22 we had three progress meetings where we tackled topics and then at the end we had a final review meeting in August of 23 but between those meetings the stakeholders also had homework so we sent out surveys um to them really with the first one of gathering um issue identifications they're there all the time so we wanted to make sure we can see that we wanted our boots on the ground to give us the understanding what the issues were out there we also had a feedback loop for project ideals you'll see we had 22 projects mentioned in here and it was really to understand what those projects are and some of those projects came directly from the folks on the stakeholder committee and lastly we had an opportunity for uh study feedback um we had lots of people give us comments on the feedback we've addressed most of those comments and um you know generally speaking I applaud them because the report is a relatively long report and so a lot of people tried to get into the details of that report um as part of the last study feedback we offered one-on-one meetings with visual stakeholders and seven of them took us up on there just for some clarification and understand Prevail those comments so we had seven one-on-one meetings with the stakeholder group um this is the list of the stakeholders um this was the people that were officially on our stakeholder committee occasionally some people brought a substitute in their place or they um um brought a friend with them as well but those are the folks that we were actively involved with on our on our stakeholder committee and active participants just a little bit about our timeline just to recap um we tried to keep this on schedule meeting with the stakeholder committee about once every other month with a wrap up in the final report in September to present to you today a little bit about the study area we looked at 10 corridors and 17 intersections um we really want to understand the existing conditions is the for worth Stockyard has a form based code and some of those recommendations for the cross-sections in the form based code so one of the things we're asked to look at is are those cross-sections appropriate for what the Stockyards is becoming today and we also looked at the master Thorofare plan and actor Transportation plan to see really understand how those existing documents play into what the stocks have become we did a full ad assessment that's um for accessibility and you'll see a map in the presentation to see that there are some accessibility issues in the Stockyards and it's complicated because you're retting historic infrastructure as well and we also looked at um vehicle pedestrians and bicycle crashes throughout the Stockyards from 2018 to 2022 um this is an example of some of the evaluation analysis um we really looked at understanding what The Pedestrian experiences out there so when you look at this map you can see East Exchange future undeveloped areas of the stock cards going to look at so we looked at today we looked at 2028 and we looked at 2033 to really understand what that projected growth in the Stockyards would be um we also looked at curbside management this is a a new term that's um been around for a few years but relatively new it's really the curb is some of the most valuable space that the city May own and how we operate that curb and maximize that curb could be important is that curb used for on street parking is that curb for used for loading is that curve used for um a bike share system docking so really just understand how that curb works and how that can work for us and it can accomplish many goals we also looked at circulation we wanted to understand how people got to the stockyards in the age we live with big data we can see where people are coming from where they're going and if they had alternate routes how could they get there so this is a a chart with a lot of projects on it as I mentioned there were 22 different projects and I'll walk you through some of these the higher probably the more talked about projects with the um committee and give you just a brief overview with these projects what these Intel but um as I mentioned we had short-term projects which hopefully we can get done within the next year and a half midterm year and a half to five years and long-term after five years really thinking about kind of the funding and the level of funding required for these projects so the first one we spent a lot of time talking about was the North Main Street retrofitting um we broke this into two projects a short-term and a and a midterm project um predominantly what the concept of this project was is there's on street parking on Main Street it becomes problematic with people jumping out of cars side mirrors get hit and there's also a problem with the sidewalks not being as wide on Main Street as they want so the overall image was to take away the on street parking widening the sidewalk well that's an expensive reconstruction project but we can accomplish some of that with striping with some um striping and removing the on street parking keeping the valet stands keeping the bus stops at a lower cost longterm ultimately riding the sidewalks um resolving some of the Ada accessibility issues and then also potentially constructing a signal at 24 Street which which is I believe under the way um really for the circulation one the thing about the 24 Street signal there's a lot of people that cross that therea right by the theater so it's really giving them a place to cross um with that signal um also has to come with Technologies because it's really close to exchange streat so we have to make sure the two signals talk to each other and working through that um but we've been in conversations with teot on that potential signal at 24th Street one of the benefits that um it has is we can be able to reconstruct some left turn Lanes if you're traveling along Main Street and you're trying to turn left onto East Exchange there's no left turn lane and it kind of can get frustra and backing up Bes sign someone we able to put that left turn lane on with the with the reconfiguration another reconfiguration that we spent a lot of time talking about was West Exchange Avenue retrofitting and we looked at West Exchange a lot and had a lot of conversations and we came down to the conclusion operating as an eastbound oneway to make it look like East Exchange would allow um Improvement for various reasons one it allows people when they're trying to park on the street a passing land a park allows emergency vehicles to potentially pass and also makes West Exchange feel similar to East Exchange just from the context field um we had a again a short-term project and a midterm project a short-term project we can accomplish this restriping with just striping longterm we could rebuild the road with bulb outs and I showed a bulb out intersection below for you for those who not familiar with it what a bulb out does is at the intersection it allows for a shorter pedestrian Crossing it prevents those parking people from the people who park right right next to an intersection if you've been to an intersection you can't see around so that's what we're really trying to accomplish at a lot of the intersections so in the short term we can accomplish that with striping in the long term we when we rebuil when the street is rebuilt we can actually build that into the um appropriate cross-section so West Exchange big takeaway was one way with bulb outs Ellis Avenue um very similar if you drive down Ellis it's a pretty big street um you can drive pretty fast down it it's wide um but a lot of people can't tell really if it's one or two lanes as you drive down it it kind of gives you deception sometimes you think it's one Lan sometimes you think it's two lanes so really what we want to do is make striping on the street so you can actually see where you're going and really what we want to accomplish is to put the parking call out the parking where it goes look at the street and create a center turn lane so in the short term we just restripe the roadway just to make people feel like where they need to go and the longterm very similar to main straight when Ellis needs to be rebuilt it can be rebuilt with wider sidewalks pull in that street and construct it like it would be on a normal a three Lane Street 23rd Street restriping this was an interesting project because this project kind of evolved as we were going through the process with the stakeholders at the beginning of the project there was a lot of discussion about the on street parking but during the project the on street parking was actually restricted on 23rd Street and the stakeholder committee unanimously said they liked it restricted and so we went forward with the recommendation of not having on street parking on 23rd Street um we have buffered bike LS which potentially could tie into a future extension of the Marine Creek Trail that would tie into the stockyard and this was the proposed short term is to restripe with this configuration but this is one that as we went through the project um kind of the recommendation changed from the stakeholders as we implemented something else or as the city implemented something else another project was the i35w to Stockyards connector looking at the data um there's multiple ways that people are coming to the Stockyards but there's not really a direct connection from you go down 28th street but there's not an alternative route um this is a long-term project um the funding source to be determined and one of our first early recommendations is the exact alignment of this route needs to be determined and maybe um look at at a cost at the time of doing the project there was a Grant application put in by the city of for war to look at building this grant um this grant was not awarded so it gives you some time to actually figure out alternatives to creating this connection and what that actually looks like I think everyone on the committee was on favor of this um project just wants to know what the actual alignment turns out to be and obviously the cost is a big number um wayfinding there was a lot of discussion about wayfinding what we included in the report was really City wayfinding not necessarily um if you think about um downtown way finding the this was more of getting people to the you know not the these are the more standard signs for way finding just so people know where the parking is we noticed a lot of people that went to the Stockyards if you put it on your phone it takes you to East Exchange so it just takes you there you go your phone takes you to a destination not your parking so we're like how do we get people when they're driving to that destination that their phone's telling them to use another parking spot so we thought of implementing we came up with a parking W finding sign really to get people to potentially use the parking lots on the west side a little bit more than the East Side especially if they're going to both definite destinations um one of the ideas at one of our stakeholder committees is really looking at a circulation route and we looked at the different parking lots and kind of developed a preliminary circulation route and we believe that this project will be a partnership between um the stock guards Association maybe triny Metro and maybe the city but really were trying to plan out where those stops would be on that circulation route what that circulation route would look like and we called this a midterm project a long-term project was the connection of the Marine Creek Trail to the Stockyards you can almost get to the Stockyards on a trail today but can't quite get there and it's establishing that last connection it's in your active Transportation plan it's in your Confluence plan um it's just calling it out as a a project in the Stockyards plan um similar there was a lot of Crossing countermeasures that we we called out um a lot of those the ball bouts I mentioned earlier kind of calling out the intersections of where those um cross crossing measures to do Al also with the ball bouts what you can do when you have the ball bouts there's not a lot of places on the sidewalk to put infrastructure that's a good place to put your lighting your street lighting so people can see a lot of times you have the stocks at night it's really hard to see because it's dark and the lighting doesn't go there but the ball bouts would be an opportunity for the lighting Improvement so there's recommendations for lighting improvements in those ball bouts as well um one of the projects that became pretty imp parent important as we went out there especially during our fieldsite visit is especially during the weekends people Park wherever they want to park there's kind of somewhat chaos at some weekends on The socky Yards I was actually on Packers Avenue and they Park all the way down Packers Avenue and if you're familiar with Packers Avenue if you drive the wrong way you can get stuck because it becomes really narrow so really what I mentioned earlier about curbside management is one of the strategies we looked at is we looking at implementing metered parking um one of the note is that only 10% of the parking on the Stockyards property is metered parking so the other 90% is already um surface lot um really what um the existing on street parking what we saw it doing it was creating some unsafe overc capacity parties especially during the peak periods when it was really busy people were doing things that they probably shouldn't be doing and what we think the there was also low turnover um we would track kind of license plates as we were going along cars and you don't want people park on the street you want the people park on the street the people to go the dinner eat and leave in an hour maybe two hours you want that turnover rate also some of the businesses when they wanted to have someone stop in for 30 minutes there was no short-term parking that someone could stop in and go out and so what potentially metered parking would allow you to do is time limit those parking you know maybe you can also time during the days like during this time period this is only when trucks are allowed Etc so there's some flexibility with the management of the curb with meter parking um also there was a lack of enforcement um you often see with meter parking there's some enforcement that comes with it so some of that lack of enforcement that was happening during those Peak events um meter parking potentially could find a funding that would allow that enforcement to occur um estimated cost of the meter parking 580,000 it doeses not include the operating cost so this would be the upfront cost of implementing The Meters but there would be ongoing operation costs that associated with it um adaa compliance this is the map of the ada8 clients again red is um where there's issues on a lot of the curb ramps out there from an accessibility standpoint were built prior or built are relatively old and so we we worked on some of the areas and kind of come up with some ideas on West change of how you could actually make that potentially closer to accessibility and sidewalk connectivity um you know really the sidewalk connectivity is there's mostly sidewalk everywhere in the Stockyards except on Ellis and Stockyards Boulevard those are the two main um streets missing sidewalks at the end we developed into short-term and Midterm recommendations the short-term recommendations were roughly $2 million and include the projects that were really what we could Implement at a relatively um simple implementation inexpensive projects and and then we looked at midterm and long-term cost um one of the things in the midterm and long-term cost when you look at the numbers we did pull out that I35 to Stockyards connector because we don't know where that funding source would become from so we didn't put that in the numbers so that's why you will see a little bit different numbers but this would be the total cost of the all the projects mentioned before um went through that relatively quickly but I wanted to open up for questions U Jeff and Raj you might remember uh me asking this before um the slide that talked about sidewalk connectivity in relation to Ellis Avenue uh you had two projects in a prior slide to that uh I'm referring to project C which is a short-term project we all know that there are identified sidewalk gaps there it was only I think in Project D that you mentioned widening the sidewalking and reconstructing uh Ellis but what about the short-term project C is there any plan to do anything shortterm as far as sidewalk gaps yeah in the short-term project it was just restriping we can obviously if the sidewalk gaps um I think we had sidewalk gaps in we had the sidewalk conductivity as a midterm project because the funding of that but we did we don't have a dollar associated with it if you look at project at the very bottom of this list and the reason is is because it was put in that long-term project but see we we did put it in the short-term project as a potential to move up so there is an allowance for that possibly in the short term okay my only concern again is just Public Safety because walking that when it's dry it's one thing okay when it gets wet not so good you know I mean there's even uh stumps from prior City Signs still there embedded in the ground so if you're not watching you can trip very easily and we can easily edit that potentially the sidewalk connectivity to a midterm project and remove it from the long-term project okay just just my consideration right there maybe we ought to have a short-term solution as well thank you and I appre appreciate the presentation very much any other questions Council thank you both very much for the hard work okay Council we're going to move um up Andy Taft to present the plan 2033 downtown strategic action plan thank you Andy for being here yes my pleasure thank you Council um this uh this has been a long time coming we've been been working on this for about a year and a half now and uh it's been reviewed by all the partners of course downtown Fort wor think the city of Fortworth and Trinity Metro have funded the downtown strategic action plan for all of the last four versions of the 10-year plan and this plan has broken down into four major components livable neighborhoods Diversified economy great and distinctive places and seamless connections um you're not supposed to read all the names on the slide but suffice it to say that in the in the book that you've got in front of you you see all the names of all the different committee members who participated in this program not the least of whom were the multitude of City of Fort Worth staff uh both on in the city manager's uh office and uh police and fire and a number of other departments that uh W worked with us as well as our planning Consultants interface Studios and a number of of uh local Consultants as well again took about a year and a half uh and uh all of those people came together over that period of time in a variety of subcommittees to talk about what their vision of the future was and they started with and our Consultants started with a review of all the plans that kind of touched downtown including the Confluence plan and the city's economic development plan a number of other things that you have to consider uh as we move forward thinking about and envisioning what downtown is going to be 10 years from now and the Strategic steps that it's going to take to get from from here to there for the purposes of this study we consider downtown the area that's identified here in the uh in this uh unshaded area uh and it takes in the whole Samuels Avenue neighborhood to the north the walkable core of downtown which is the darker shaded in uh area in the middle and then the edge conditions in downtown including uh Butler all the way over to the river and uh and then to the southeast the area where we see a lot of restaurants the uh in the in the Papa's area uh at I30 uh but what's what's most important perhaps about this this particular slide is that we identify the neighborhoods immediately adjacent to downtown all of which are seeing significant activity uh in one form or another Panther Island the Cultural District the near South Side the historic south side and and in the east side where we see a lot of residential development happening as well what happens in downtown affects them and what happens in those areas affect ffect us so this plan and our planning Consultants took into consideration all the things that are going on there to make sure that the connections between downtown and the neighborhoods made sense uh as well as the theory behind what we are suggesting in the plan uh takes place in downtown how we can benefit those neighborhoods and how they can work uh in collaboration with downtown um downtown was broken down into these sub areas which are not on anybody else's map they're just ways of thinking about down town they are reflective of how downtown has organized itself kind of organically over the years and they suggest development patterns or ideas on how we might be able to leverage the physical Assets in these areas as we consider uh uh development recruitment strategies incentives those sorts of things going forward as we did our processes uh we asked people to Envision what they wanted downtown and use one word to describe what they wanted downtown to be 10 years from now and the size of the letter uh is reflective of how often that word was used so vibrant active exciting connected welcoming these are the the big kind of uh philosophical words that were used um but downtown should also be clean attractive efficient safe inviting during the day and at night all of these overlaid with a sense of romance and wonder so that's a very good way to describe the kind of downtown that we like to see uh uh 10 years from now we have this in a very small section of downtown today but we'd like to see more of downtown defined in that way going forward so the vision of downtown the official vision is that should it be a vibrant competitive destination for businesses visitors residents that capitalizes on its history culture and authenticity a center of connectivity learning creativity ENT entrepreneurship and livability if we can hit get high marks on all of those we will have a downtown uh that we can all be proud of 10 years from now I think we have a downtown that we're proud of now but we'll have a a bigger walkable core that is reflective of this Vision if we can hit our marks in the next 10 years and one of the reasons that we should be confident that we will hit those marks or at least come close to them uh is that we've got 11 catalytic projects that we have a very high degree of confidence are going to happen over the next 10 years and as you can see they stretch from north to south throughout uh a large portion of downtown and with the new city hall anchoring the the west side of downtown and Butler on the East we've got a lot of projects that are in the mix that are not only going to be good unto themselves but they will in all likelihood generate a lot more activity around them especially in areas where there is um quite a bit of land available for further uh further development so I'm going to go very quickly through these four Cate at ories with regard to livable neighborhoods this chart is um is reflective of the unit growth of downtown residential units uh uh delivered to the market and as you can see we're approaching about 9,000 units over the next couple of years and with one and a half thousand people or one and a half people living per unit we're we're we're pushing the 15,000 people living in downtown that does not include the near South Side it does not include the West 7th area across the river so the center city has seen a population growth that's very impressive and that's something that dfwi and the city have been working on for the last 40 years or so this and a quick question for you on that section do you know off the top of your head or maybe it's in the um written language here of your multif family unit growth how many of those are rent versus owner occupied Condominiums almost all of them are for rent okay yeah okay so if there if there were a priority on incentives or anything that we want to do to encourage the market uh the owner occupied side would be the one that we would put focus on thank you uh this image reflects where where residential is and as you can see in the north side along Samuels there's a high degree of population density on the North side but a lot of that is single family housing in the middle of downtown there's quite a bit of concentration in certain areas but a lot of uh dispersion uh uh uh across the geography there's quite a bit of land available for more Redevelopment but not in the 3 Acre sites that it requires for these um texus Donuts um you know a parking garage with 300 units around it that the market seems to be developing a lot of lot of lot not a lot of land left for that in downtown so we would expect to see more density more high-rise development like we're seeing at 96 Deco 969 so the goals uh in the Strategic action plan and I'll just talk about a couple of of them is to try to create a greater mix of housing types and a range of price points for sale in downtown last year we hit 15% of all new units delivered in downtown was uh were affordable the last 10 years over the last 10 years and our goal was 10% so we'd like to see uh 15% going forward as our new goal uh more neighborhood serving amenities a street Network that encourages pedestrian uh activity uh between uh in in and between destinations in downtown and the adjacent districts and then also lifelong learning opportunities so that downtown is an attractive Place uh for families with children and and people of all ages there are a series of outcomes and strategies and tactics associated with how we can accomplish that we had tremendous accomplishments on the education side in the last 10 years and we think that there are signs that we'll have more of that over the next 10 years so we want to increase the number of housing units uh in the core of downtown uh support support incentives for higher density and that's in the your economic development plan uh increase affordable housing uh for low-income and middle inome uh households and um and support the um un the unhoused and we heard today about some of the things that you're doing for that and uh we're engaged in that process with our ambassadors as well um there are series of housing strategies that are suggested in here again along the lines of those breakouts of the submarkets in downtown these aren't requirements they're just ideas for as we work with developers it gives us a context for talking to them about uh what the city's comprehensive plan and and the the growth opportunities look like in these areas uh on the Diversified economy side I would say we've made great strides in the last 10 years and our occupancy rate of about 90% in office right now is reflective of how we are not as dependent on oil and gas as we were in the past the shocks that we've seen in that industry industry have not rocked us as much as they have in Houston for example and some of the tech shocks that we see that have rocked Austin have not affected us ours is a much more Diversified uh office base in downtown uh but the pipeline is small so we need to continue to grow the pipeline but if we want a more walkable downtown with a larger geographic area you can see that we're clustered right now along the Maine and Houston spine uh and uh we need to grow that to the to the east and west uh and I think the convention center and uh the the expansion of the Omni and and Texas A&M uh will help on the Southeast quadrant of downtown I think City Hall will help to the west and we've got a lot of opportunity on the northwest or the yeah yeah the northwest side uh with regard to land available for redevelopment so we need to talk about the plan does talk about how we might go about some of those so I'm not going to go through these but there are a series of strategies many of which come out of the city's uh comprehensive strategic plan uh economic development plan to uh to seed innovation in downtown Texas A&M again I think is going to be a leader in that uh but to provide a lot of opportunities that are attractive to both residents locals and visitors Out of Towners are conventioneers and so forth so we want to create a downtown that's welcoming to all uh we want to Market downtown as a home base for visitors we have the highest concentration of hotel rooms in the city in downtown so I think we can leverage that and and think about downtown as the home base uh but we also want to Market it as a Fort Worth destination and use the assets that we have already uh and leverage those and promote those more effectively uh and we want to support startups to the extent that we've got ground floor availabilities in particular or uh startups that are interested and taking advantage of what Texas A&M is going to be doing and what UT is already doing uh UT is doing in downtown we want to support those and encourage that to happen here as well there are major Redevelopment opportunities in downtown not the least of which is the TMP warehouse and I know that the city is doing what it can to encourage that owner to uh to get that building back in production and uh Panther Island as well obviously a huge opportunity for all of Fort Worth but given its adjacency to downtown uh a huge opportunity to uplift the entire Center City the north the energy of the North End of downtown dies in the Trinity River Valley uh and that 800 acres of Panther Island it's undeveloped at this point but clearly over the next 10 years the momentum built in the panther Island area will have a huge positive effect on downtown great and distinctive places uh we want downtown to be a destination that visit that draws visitors from the DFW metroplex two strategies associated with that market what we've got and add more destinations and we've got suggestions in this plan about how we might be able to do that we need to celebrate our historic character uh and we need to have a lively accessible and attractive public realm I think we hit a lot of those marks I think we can do better and over the next 10 years between us and the city and and everyone else working on all these Implement implementation committees will be bringing recommendations to the city for future Bond programs that make downtown uh a better uh uh a better place that's more reflective of the of the self-image of Fort Worth uh recommendations can include uh maintaining and elevating this extraordinarily clean environment that we have uh in the core of downtown creating a Parks Conservancy program we've got about5 A5 million dollars in a Conservancy program for some downtown Parks already we'd like to work with the parks department to expand that and Heritage Park would be a part of that program and uh we we want to continue to ensure new development supports Urban Design principles that everything we add to the ground makes downtown more pedestrian friendly and reinforces the character of our Center City there are a series of things that are recommended in the plan um these come out of the planning 101 handbook uh there's not a lot of new stuff in here but it's these are ideas that we can Implement in Fort Worth some of which are expensive others are not so expensive and some are downright cheap uh or inexpensive and uh and we can we can leverage all of those ideas in downtown over the course of the next 10 years uh not the least of which are potentially taking some of our parking garages which are very clean and wellmaintained but modest with regard to what they add to the environment uh decorative uh or uh artistic wayfinding signage uh using light especially at night um uh in places where we really need it uh would be great and and also some Innovative Landscaping in certain uh areas of downtown the downtown gateways represent remarkable opportunities to make a great first and last impression and we have a couple of those now I would say that the West Seventh Gateway into town uh with that amazing Bridge is a is a great example of how we can make a great first and last impression I think the Lancaster um Viaduct Bridge beautiful elegant statement um hemp the hemp Lamar underpass with the illuminated horns beautiful statement but that's three out of all of these so I think we've got opportunities to uh to think about how we present ourselves to our visitors and to the locals as well and there are a number of things that we can do uh with regard to programming public spaces and programming our parks and Civic spaces as well not the one of the uh big opportunities is um a Redevelopment or rethinking of General Worth Square the convention center will be expanded right across the street so this is a great opportunity and then on the south end of downtown at the Water Gardens opening that up uh to Lancaster itself seamless connections is the the last of the four big categories and we worked with the city and Trinity Metro and a number of others to talk about the things that we'd like to see going forward not the least of which again is uh focused on a people first approach getting them to downtown outside of the single occupant vehicle and uh offering better connections between downtown and those adjacent districts there are a long series of Transportation related suggestions in the Strategic plan that the Committees which again are composed of city and county Representatives downtown business people community folks they're going to be working and churning through these recommendations over the course of the next 10 years and elevating ideas that um that the city finds in its priority Matrix hopefully to be funded and implemented in downtown and at the very end of the plan uh you will see an implementation Matrix and again this font was designed to accelerate this presentation so you don't have to read it right now but every one of those four categories has the all the recommendations listed and the Consultants put them into short medium and longterm oh thank you very much uh short medium and long-term recommendations ultimately the committee uh participants will determine whether or not there short medium and longterm and the city with regard to funding or the county or whoever the funding agency is is ultimately going to decide whether or not something is short medium or long term but we've listed them all and we'll the Committees will be able to grind through through all of these over time which makes this plan a living document right it's not going to sit on a shelf so we'll be responsible for convening the Committees and working through and grinding the plan and making sure that 10 years from now when we look back we'll be able to say that we work the plan and everything that was possible to do over the last 10 years got done so I know you've had the opportunity to um review the plan you've receiv reive the um the link on our website and uh and so this is the final presentation to be made uh and then I believe that in a week or two you're going to uh consider it for adoption and and uh integration into the city's comprehensive plan I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have questions for Andy Elizabeth thank you Andy I really appreciate it I know had the pleasure of being part of this process and I know council member Flora's um sat on that steering committee as well it was extensive and there were a lot of voices in the room a lot of conflicting voices in the room often um so I've had an opportunity to review this plan and really kudos to you and the folks at you3 that were able to navigate that and really come out with something that I think everybody is behind so thank you for that thank you is Melissa Cano here she is I well I saw her earlier she had a go okay all right so our our staff member and and it it really would be poor form if I didn't mention Melissa canor who was our staff member that shephered this plan through the process she did a remarkable JB job as did our other staff members but Dana and Fernando and Mary and your staff uh really could not have done it without this really great Cooperative team effort thank you very much awesome job thank you very much Andy okay let me find my list here Dana's back up here presentation on etj release Dana berdoff and Rich McCracken you might need a Coke for this one y'all I know you want to stand up and stretch do some yeah arm arm stretches so um I I wanted to note that these first three presentations all relate to City Planning uh so we had our transportation planning in the Stockyards we had our strategic planning in our downtown and now we're going to talk about what might be the opposite of planning um from our state legislature with regard to etj releases um and so this is a a new bill that uh went into effect September 1st I'm going to go through some introductory information then turn it over to Rich to walk through the the the bill itself and then I'll come back up and talk about uh what we've seen so far with regard to the to the impact with Fort Worth the reason we're bringing this to you is that it does impact our planning related to infrastructure and responsible growth our comprehensive plan does cover uh what's called our etj our extr territorial jurisdiction I'll talk more about that in a moment uh and of course our work plan objective to make sure we have long-term plans for infrastructure uh that we're also looking at land use and trying to increase our non residential percentage um of our tax base and so looking at our etj and what might be annexed in the future and what those land uses are is important uh as well as then our intergovernmental relations and strengthening that with our counties uh because this impacts now our Authority in our etj and so now we're going to need to be relying on our County Partners to step in uh where we may no longer be able to and then of course just continuous Improvement um uh for the organization so we'll talk about what the etj is we'll talk about the bill itself or the new state law excuse me our requests receiv received to date and then the the policy issues so just briefly this is a map showing in the dark gray as our extr territorial jurisdiction so all cities in Texas have an etj an extra territorial jurisdiction uh except where they butt up against another city so you'll see for Fort Worth on the east side uh now on part of the north side and and and Southeast that we don't have any etj because that's where we run into other cities right whether it's uh Arlington or or halam city and so on um but our etj be for cities that are over a 10000 population the etj extends out five miles and that's by state law and for other cities that are smaller in size um it goes down to about a half mile so there's different uh grades of etj if you will so you'll see um in the colors uh are the different cities that maybe touch our etj or where where we're um close to them on the on the edge of the city and we'll talk about why that's important to know where those other cities are and both they sometimes have etj so for example Haslet has etj we have atj um and then the other cities on the west side where we run into some challenges but the reason that etj is there is to promote public health safety and Welfare according to state law was established I think these were established in 1987 looking at the state law uh for when cities got ejs but it's important for us because our subdivision ordinance and all of our infrastructure um uh plans and design manuals relate to the etj so we're able to look at land use not not from zoning perspective but at least in terms of looking at whether it's going to whether the use is going to be industrial or commercial whether it's going to be residential and what does that mean for our water and wastewater especially that's very important but then also important is what does it mean for our Master thoroughfare plan so so connectivity Street networks across the counties uh is very important and even going back I don't know I want to say 15 or 20 years ago Parker County and tarant County came to us and said hey can you facilitate a conversation about East West Street connectivity in your etj right because what you've got planning and where that growth is happening is going to affect our Mobility as counties and we care about that in fact Fernando Costa facilitated those conversations uh many years ago and I know more recently council member crane has talked about the importance of our arterial networks and and connectivity um uh within our etj and what would be uh future city limits so our etj you'll see again where where we butt up against other cities and in some cases we actually have released EJ right where we've said we're not planning to serve this area in the long term uh perhaps it's going to be part of a municipal Utility District uh perhaps we've made arrangements with another city but we have made changes to it and we have the city council has that authority to adjust to the etj um on its own but in any event we cover this with our comprehensive plan we've got land use designations for all 350 square miles of what we'd like to see and plan to see in this area um and so again from a planning standpoint infrastructure planning standpoint uh the etj has been uh been important to us um and it's then important to Property Owners because if they want to come into the city if they want to receive water service if they want to receive police and fire protection for their development they have to be in our etj in order to be considered for annexation okay so so now we've got SB 2038 and I'll let Rich speak to that okay so under the new law there's basically two ways that it authorizes Property Owners to get their property removed from the etj so the first one is a by petition only the city has to immediately release their property from the etj if they provide us with a proper petition and then it lays out here in the first bullet it's got to be signed by 50% of the owners of the property or the majority and value of the land owners um but to clarify we had some questions before you can just as a single property owner out in the etj just petition for your property and have it released um there's no city council action if you do a release by petition it's just automatic if you have a valid petition the second option is to ask the city council to hold an election for the property owners that live in that area to call the question on whether or not they should be released and that requires 5% of the voters in that area and the area in the petition is really whatever the petitioners draw out and as the area they want to be subject to that petition than SL next SL so not all property in the etj is authorized to use either of those two options there's some exceptions they built in so any property that's within five mil miles of the active military base cannot uh take advantage of it also any area that's designated as an industrial district and finally any area where we have a strategic partnership agreement with the property owners cannot use this and then there's one more thing they added to the law so you know traditionally is the City Annex property our etj would expand uh now for any annexation from January 1 2023 and Beyond the city's etj no longer expands unless we speak with the property owners that would be in that expanded area and they want uh their property to be included in in the new expanded ecj area all right thank you Rich so uh wanted to point out on this map it's it's very busy um but I want to show you that that Circle or that oval so that's the F mile buffer around the naval air station joint reserve base so that's the military base um that that's the layer that we get from the state uh that shows then the five miles and so any requests to be removed from our etj within that area wouldn't be eligible under the under the state law but everything Beyond it um is eligible so just in the month of September uh we've received 10 requests from Property Owners uh in this case all generally individual Property Owners uh so 10 requests uh luckily for us only one of those is in our City Water Service Area our CCN certificate of convenience and necessity so that's good because that means that those are areas that other utilities uh other um uh water uh CCN holders were going to be serving so generally they're they're in some cases further away from our city limits but but not in every case um so the other piece I'll mention is that uh we've got I think three counties that are affected so we've got two requests in tarant County uh we've got three requests in Parker County and then this is a double one here so we've got five requests in Johnson County so uh you'll see that they're kind of geographically dispersed and totaling almost uh 1,600 Acres so again that that isn't a huge concern if these are properties that are probably going to stay residential or undeveloped for some period of time they're not looking for City water service or can be served by someone else um and are likely to remain sort of uh lower density uh in in character but I wanted to give you an example of one we're going to walk through all 10 real quickly I won't spend a lot of time on them but just real quickly this is a good example so our first one this is on bonds Ranch Road so this is in our etj up uh in what would be future I believe District I'm going to have to remember which future District this one must be future District Seven I think north of north of uh peton is district 10 um so future district 7 and part of the reason this matters is um we use the subdivision ordinance in our etj that whenever there's any development activity that's how we obtain right of way for the streets so bonds Ranch Road is a County Street section today and so where we have our city limits um which is in the the the gray area so where we have our city limits we're able to get that right of way or in Prior subdivisions we were able to get right of way so that bonds Ranch Road could be a proper arterial right generally four lanes uh some cases six um in this instance we'll need to rely on Taran County that when these properties develop that they're able to get the right of way for that to be more than a two-lane County Road so we're going to we're going to see some funnels really of going from six and four lanes down to two lanes back to four lanes back to two lanes back to four lanes so it's going to get messy so we're we're confident that tent County will want to work with us and um as that development happens to try to get that get that ride of way so that we'll have good Street connectiv this one's in aqua Texas CCN um and so it's it's not going to you know wasn't it was planned in the long term to be served by Fort Worth but um within our 20-year planed service area but not anything imminent um then we've our second one this is now down south so we this is the first of a few in um Parker County this one you'll see is along and arterial but it's a a tech do roadway uh so they would of course deal with any uh RightWay expansions there rather than the city uh similarly this third one also in Johnson County this one's about uh let's see 100 yeah 171 Acres this is a really good sized project this is in the Bethesda Water Service utility then we've got uh the fourth one this is also Johnson County this is three property owners that came together and and and requested to be released uh next we're moving up north so this is up um excuse me Northwest so this is um along um the uh what's a north south roadway called Cattle Baron it's just north of White Settlement Road that's another good sized one at 100 almost 150 acres then we've got uh this one number six this is back down uh South interestingly this is one uh where we had been working with the property owner and the cities of Burleson and Crowley we were planning actually to release our etj and to do an agreement a trip party agreement with the three cities um but the property owner under the new law was simply able to to request removal so perhaps it simplified things for us in this case but um we need to be careful for some other properties this is the one now I'm moving here to um this is future district 7 this is um along 10 Mile Bridge Road just west of Boat Club Road this is across the street basically from the northeast corner of our Nature Center uh this is within our our city of Fort Worth Water CCN it's currently vacant property um there had been a predevelopment conference uh about I guess three years ago now for an RV park but we'll see what what happens with that but in any event um we would likely uh seek to remove this area from our water CCN um because we don't want to encourage Urban Development that we can never Annex and it's using City Water missed one okay here we are this one in um is in Far West Fort Worth this is another important one so this is adjacent to the etj for the city of Alo this is at FM 1187 and I20 it's a property we would have preferred to keep because it's commercial Frontage right it's on I20 at 1187 it would have been a great property for us to have annexed in the future that owner um sought to get released from Fort Worth so that they could then instead approach Alo and ask Alo to Annex them so this is uh one of our instances of property owners who are doing what we're what we've just made up as the term City shopping so if they're in between two cities they can decide well maybe I like your tax rate better or I like your incentives better or I like something else better so I'm going to ask that I get removed from YJ so maybe this other city will take me in uh and provide services to me so this is at the Gateway to Alo and this is another this is a huge one at 320 Acres um that that's uh been released uh the the let's see the ninth one we're now back um down south and Johnson County this is one that's um actually adjacent to uh the city of burles uh currently currently vacant but we were not planning to serve it in the near term so it may it may be okay that it's may be better served by Burleson and then this last one this is up up next to the very North End of Walsh Ranch uh which is annexed for limited purposes uh so you can see this piece here that's along White Settlement Road this is another one of those where today there's a a a portion of White Settlement Road it's a two-lane County Road today we would like that to extend West to FM 3325 which is a farmer road we think that's an important East West Connection uh but again at this point we'll need to rely on Parker County to see if they would be willing to get that that um right of way in the future in order to make that connection since it will be outside of our our etj and we won't be able to have that Authority all right and so this is another example um of a property owner that was wanting to to City shop so they um send a request in this case now to the city of Haslet so this is a property owner in Haslet etj they submitted a petition to be released from Haslet etj and they they then emailed us immediately and said hey we're available come Annex us we'd like to do single family development and they're and they're actually it's the same developer who's developing in Fort Worth on the west side of John day so I can see why they might think that Fort Worth would be interested um in this case we're we're not again because of our trying to balance residential and non-residential uh we're not eager to Annex um single family development and we're also not eager to undermine what the city of Haslet was trying to accomplish which was to work with that property owner to get some larger lot sizes you'll see that they back up to one acre plus lots within the city of Haslet they were trying to negotiate with them to get a little bit larger lot size the developer didn't like that so they wanted to get released and instead come to Fort Worth because we're more liberal with our lot sizes um and so they thought they could work with us on that so that's an example of our intergovernmental relations uh potentially being affected by uh what property owners might be might be doing so in terms of uh next steps we've got a couple of things that we're that we've been talking through and of course welcome welcome your input as well so number one is because these etj releases are happening Fast and Furious uh we want to make sure that we're communicating with that property owner and putting into the deed record um the the the fact that once released from our etj um they will not be able to be annexed in the future and so there is not the ability to get future city services right to get water to get um police and fire protection whatever that may be and so we'd like to put that in the deed record so subsequent owners of that property will know that this was released from Fort Worth etj and perhaps at some point they might want to come back and ask to be added back to our etj who knows um next is that we would want to look at releasing our water CCN so our our city limits and our etj boundaries uh are are one set of boundaries and then our CCN boundaries another set of boundaries um and we would work through the state Public Utility Commission uh to try to release our water CCN so that they're not enabled to do Urban Development right next to the city um without uh having that opportunity for future annexation now we will caveat that to say in their the water department is mapping right now where they've uh planned or or built major Water and Sewer lines um and so if there's some etj along those lines where they might request release it still may be beneficial to us from a utility standpoint to still serve those areas we don't want to leave stranded capacity where we've spent you know perhaps millions of dollars to put in lines and now we're not going to be able to recoup the costs of impact fees and other um other other fees related to that usage of that that capacity so we we'll evaluate that on a case-by Case basis then uh there are scaras I mentioned particularly like the ones in Johnson County they're not in rccn tends to be more rural uh uh development that's likely planned or it may just stay rural for a while so we're actually going to look and see are there adjacent areas that we should look at releasing and we'll bring that back uh likely to the city plan commission and then to the city council to see if there's some EtG areas that we should just go ahead and release now uh rather than having folks just come and at us one property owner at a time and having to to deal with those pieces uh next we'd like to request agreements um uh thanks to to Rich and and his team they've drafted uh letter agreements for us to offer to our adjacent Partners or city Partners to respect our etj and CCN boundaries so for example we'll start with the city of Haslet and say you know we've talked with mayor Hy and he's uh very appreciative of of that idea and so um we'll have that letter agreement and and offer that to our neighbors uh Alita would be another uh Burleson and so on that we'll that we'll reach out to um but ideally to trying to prevent uh City shopping and then uh asking the counties as I mentioned through our interlocal agreements to obtain the major street right of way during platting for uh that etj that is released and then lastly to make sure that our water department has the opportunity to also comment on those plats that might be in our CCN uh particularly if we haven't yet released it from our CCN or decided that we want to keep it uh uh to to have that strand you know to make sure we don't leave that stranded capacity so these are the the things we've identified um as as next steps to try to protect our interests um as well as to just make make sure that we're planning for the future as best we can um with that I'll be happy to answer any questions question Dana go back to the slide um I think it keep going showing all of the no no go to Dean Ranch ah this is an example yeah sorry I don't remember which one that is now I'm only using this one just because of the extreme growth there it is thank you yeah and because um our former mayor Alo is in audience kit am I right that Alo is served by volunteer fire department ESD service for fire just as an example under ESD so Emergency Services District in Parker County this is just I'm using this as an example that's a tremendous amount of acreage I don't know how many rooftops that they'll put in this area we're going to deed restrict say no city services but I have to imagine just for Fort Worth Alo could serve that's the collision course because at some point the volume is going to be so great that an ESD correct kit that volume right now you couldn't cover right and so I just I'm just pointing that out that this was what we all worried about during session especially in these larger um lot sizes and so I would discourage any land owner from they're doing what they want to do we can't stop them but it it is going to be a real problem especially 10 years from now yeah especially when it comes to Public Safety Services yeah so Michael yeah I'll piggyback on that because we also have shared services with Walsh so you're also talking about taxing on on the systems out there uh that will happen and as that growth happens so thanks for pointing that out I think there's a little a little bit of shortsightedness there um but I I get what they're trying to do you uh we've talked a lot about this and I have a big concern of donuts that we're talking about yes that could happen especially in the etj that's in District three yes District Seven also you point out District 8 and District six but yeah um and I apologize I was going to one of these Maps actually um already shows um you can see dut holes yeah yeah the the Y so that'll continue to which is compx development I'm glad you brought up the idea that we'll still have this talking about our utilities and getting easements across so we can even if we have those donut holes being having some foresight to make sure that we're um still able to service those pizzas that want to come into the city of Fort Worth so thanks thanks for that I had a question too as you brought up the roads and what what powers the county really have in in this piece um you brought up to make sure that that road is expanded because I can guarantee when stuff starts happening they're not calling the County they're going to call the city and call our offices when the traffic hits so what what powers do they have in the negotiation yeah so so counties do have subdivision and platting authority and so we I think our latest um agreement with Taran county is either 2006 or 2008 uh where through our interlocal agreement um because it's the in Fort Worth ctj Taran County agreed that Fort Worth could be the responsible entity uh for enforcing our our subdivision ordinance and uh tarant County serves on our development Review Committee when there are plats that are in the county and we have similar Arrangements uh with some of the other counties in some cases it might be dual Authority right both entities need to review so in these instances where it's then removed from RJ Taran County would by default become the responsible entity uh for reviewing those those developments and in fact they just recently through their tant County Commissioner's Court adopted updated uh subdivision ordinance and um engineering design you know regulations for infrastructure um uh our concern is uh we understand the count is not going to build concrete streets with curban gutter and sidewalks and street lights right that's not part of uh of of their operation of their operation but we're hopeful that they'll at least be willing to uh get the dedication of the full width to at least allow a four-lane roadway even if it has you know bar ditches and other um treatments on the on the edge so that at least we've got the the capacity for the for the vehicular movement through these areas I love your optimism and I love the the that you said hopeful but what can we do to ensure that that's part I mean again we can have the relationships with the county but you're you're right all the curbs gutters all that stuff has to happen as part of part of it so how can we ensure that happens as this peace meal devel velopment happens yeah so um we'll we'll be hearing from the tarant county staff you know we've met with um you know their their assistant you know County manager and and their transportation planning director uh to begin to talk through some of these issues so at least at the staff level they'll be following up with us because we have to update the interlocal agreement right we we we were needed to do that anyway uh but now we really have to uh and so we'll be talking through with them I think the I think they'll my I don't want to speak for them but my guess is they'll be amenable to the right of way width but I don't know that they would be amenable to meeting the city's Street standards with regard to curban gutter sidewalks and street lights because that's not something that they maintain right they they maintain asphalt streets with with the bar ditches so we would have to work through that if if we were somehow to create some arrangement um but I would expect they have to look to the city to help fund that or you know make that possible so I don't it'll it'll be challenging it'll it'll because what you're going to end up having is probably if you're talking about this as you talked about Road shrinking down from four lanes to two lanes back to four lanes you're also going to have complete roads Gutters Etc maybe sidewalks yes on part of a stretch and then a stretch not and and residents aren't going to understand that why that yeah exactly why is that so some inside some inside baseball on what we might be able to do right is the county may say just go ahead and Annex the existing right of way right the city you know the we can Annex right of way it's not private property right thought but that may only be the say the 60 ft that's there today and then if the county is able to exact the rest during platting at some point then perhaps we can Annex the remainder of the ride of way and then maintain it as a city street we would just have have to Case by case right does that make sense is it City street standard on both sides yeah yeah great idea and and D Dana one thing I know we can't Mi we can't mix this sausage and warp session I think it's good that it's time to get the local updated and I'm sure you guys will have everything ironed out for us perfect timing yes I appreciate it and I just want to make sure we get some of that on record thanks mayor proen bons um yeah thank you and don't forget the citizen expectation Michael that you mentioned we also need to have you know some kind of communication even though these are new citizens but there will be an expectation that people think they get because they're in Fort wor or near right and the last point of this process too I'd like us to get notifications where it's going to be affected where we are I don't think y'all are doing that at this point we you and I've talked sure but I know had about three or four in his district and CHR so that's one of the things yeah so so um DJ harell and Jennifer Roberts I need first of all I need to uh thank them for all their their work uh and getting this presentation ready so thank you Jennifer and the team for for getting all this ready along with working with the other departments so a couple of thoughts one is that we'll Um send a notice kind of do an email notice as these come in right to the district council member and and and staff leaders ship um but our thought is that we'll follow up with a monthly IR or maybe less often depending on how many we get but we've already got I think two or three more in October um these requests and so we just want to keep keep that Cadence up as long as we're getting these requests so we can you can see you know geographically where are they um in relation to each other yes sir can I add one of and the other is this isn't the brightest of public policy on a long-term perspective so we also have the opport opportunity with the legislative session that will be coming in the next couple years using as many of these ideas and opportunities with our legislative delegation to talk about how public policy has a real impact at a local level so we've got a number of great examples right here and I think we ought to use those in shaping future public policy at the state level did that work last session just curious hopeful we're hopeful thank you for the opportunity and thank you Rich apprciate you rich okay Council next is Mel Henning presentation on a proposed economic development program agreement with golden ride Services well that's coming up I'll just I recognize on the last presentation here today so I'll do my best to be brief so uh we one of the discuss a proposed economic development program agreement with golden Raod Services uh for the development of a u mix use Development Across two sites and those two sites are Illustrated here the first being uh just north of West 7th uh which is noted here as being the VanZant uh near the intersection of West 7th and Curry and the second site being uh one University which is located alongside University near bledo okay now these uh two developments are really being treated as one overall project on two different sites uh and it would involve a proposed $400 Million worth of new investment for this mixed use project that would deliver just under 200,000 square feet of new class A office space along with 20,000 feet of new retail space 466 new multif family units a 175 key autograph Hotel uh and 1,300 spaces in two new parking garages and you can see there the breakout between the two sites this is a a visual of what the VanZant would look like once complete this is another view of that same uh property looking down West 7th and here you can see just noted the the different components of the project the office retail and the multif family where they would be located this is a view going to the other site of one University this is from the West looking East this you gets you in just a little bit closer to see the the treatment as you begin to get onto the site and a view of the proposed autograph Hotel so just for comparison um many of you may be familiar with the two other autograph hotels that are located here in Fort Worth today you've got the St Clair in downtown and you've got the hotel drover and the Fort Worth Stockyards so together this project would really represent the single biggest investment in W in the West 7th District since Cypress equities first developed what is today Crockett rail so this is really an opportunity to lead the overall District into a new chapter just given the the amount and the significance of this investment um now the inclusion of uh approximately two 200,000 square feet of office space uh does bring a certain element of risk and uncertainty to the project just not only given where the the the state of the overall national office Market is today but even just drilling down a little more locally here to Fort Worth there hasn't been a lot of new class A office space that's been delivered yet certain we have certain notable projects such as uh the Crescent which are going to be coming online here soon but in certain respects uh in the eyes of the capital markets and particularly for lenders it is still somewhat of an uncertain market for new office space um now having said that the developers are uh real believers and the office Market here in Fort Worth and the opportunity to build new high quality Class A in Fort Worth uh they believe that there is uh an appetite within the market for that kind of product um and that the fundamentals are there to be able to support it neveress there is a significant financial gap uh that is preventing this project from being able to move forward that would uh prevent it from reaching Financial viability um and even though there is ongoing site work that I'm sure many might notice going on there today particularly along uh West 7th near at the VanZant site um those are all uh initial sitework improvements and things that can be easily walked away from uh the more intense development or the vertical development uh the um certainly the overall delivery of the project itself uh that is not something that could move forward that the developer would be in a position to move forward with without significant support from the city in the way of these proposed incentives and so we'll walk through through the uh proposed public private partnership that is um being presented here today to help get them there and that proposed uh P3 is similar in structure to what led to the development of the Crescent project which is uh coming up on completion and just to um be clear about that structure that involves the uh conveyance of garages in exchange for annual grants that support a portion of the debt service that help to finance those garages now I just want to be clear that the the point of that is not the delivery of the garages themselves it is a way of delivering value to the overall project to make the the overall mixed use development project uh financially viable so as part of the proposed agreement the company would be committing to an overall investment of at least $400 million for the delivery of uh these two mixed use projects and I also want to be clear that this is an All or Nothing agreement so they have to deliver both projects in order to receive any incentives under the proposed agreement of that 400 million a minimum 300 million would be required to be uh hard construction costs and a minimum 15% of all hard and soft costs must go to certified bef firms the VanZant would be required to be completed by no later than the end of 2026 and one University would be required to be completed one year later at the end of 2027 you can see here that the the breakout of uh the individual site commitments that are in line with what I just U presented a moment ago now there are some additional commitments that the developer is agreeing to as part of this proposed agreement uh the first would be to engage an office leasing practices that favor tenants that would be relocating from outside of the region because that's really ultimately what we want to see happen here is a growing base of employers here in Fort Worth that are occupying new space uh and the developer is also committing to uh not lease any of its retail space to any free freestanding bar or nightclub for the term of the agreement and so that is not the retail mix that they are proposing to bring to the west of District uh so we just want to be clear about about that commitment as well oh boy um so just to very quickly walk through the mechanics of how the uh the garages would be um uh brought into this agreement the developer would be responsible for constructing the garages and would be responsible for securing the debt to finance that construction no later than 90 days after the project is complete they would be required to convey the garages over to the city um which effectively leaves uh which would effectively be about a $48 million um value placed onto the city's balance sheet the city would enter into an operations maintenance agreement with the developer for them to be able to use the garage and all net parking Revenue would be split 50-50 between the developer and the city and approximately 660 spaces uh would be made available for use by the public on evenings and weekends there is a purchase and a per and a put option that would be included as part of this agreement for the garages to be conveyed back to the developer uh beginning as early as 2035 subject to uh the terms of this agreement to support the project and make it uh uh and to put into position of being able to go forward staff is recommending a 15-year economic development program agreement that would provide grants for up to $20 million on on a Net Present Value basis and those grants would be delivered in a flat structured annual payment of 2, 55,57 which on a gross basis is just over $30 million uh the reason for that fixed amount is that covers a portion of the debt service is directly going to finance these garages so again that helps to fill the financial gap that is preventing this project from going forward the city ultimately has some flexibility as to how to um to um uh Finance those grants but the those annual grants are generally equal to uh approximately 85% of the incremental property taxes and 85% of the incremental City 1% sales taxes that would be generated by this project so in that sense the project would be um capable of support directly supporting these grants in that manner if the city decided to to do so the in the event that there is any difference between that underlying support from incremental property taxes um and the grant payments that would be made by the city as proposed under this agreement then the developer would be responsible for paying that ultimately to the city when the garages are conveyed back to them and so that is a way for us to be able to ensure that the city is able to recoup any difference between the incremental property taxes from the project and the grants that we're giving them so we're we've built on a way to to Really reduce the risk here to the city and make sure that the city is made whole so just to summarize along the along the left side of the screen you can see the uh primary commitments from the developer and again the proposed uh develop the proposed uh incentive agreement would lead to um approximately $3.8 million of uh grants paid over the lifetime of the agreement which is $20 million on Net Present Value basis that amounts to a city participation rate of 5% which is a private the public ratio of 20 to1 uh over the course of the 15-year term of this agreement uh net of T net of the grants are uh being provided to the developer staff is forecasting that the city would net just under $40 million of net new taxes from this project again that is after the value of the grants being paid to supported that results in a payback period of approximately 4.4 years at completion of the term of this agreement so staff is recommending that the city enter into a 15year economic development program agreement to provide grants up to a total of 30,8 32755 um and an MC will be placed on the city council's agenda on October 17th now be have to answer any questions any questions for my Michael is there a Best practice number for the private partner at private public partnership ratio that's a good question so ordinarily we really Target um a private to public ratio that is north of 10 to one there have been certain cases um really exceptional uh cases where we have gone lower than that uh but generally speaking our sweet spot is above T to one so that that certainly meets that criteria was it questions um I just I wholeheartedly support this um and I hope my colleagues will as well when it's um up for a vote there's a lot that has gone into these two particular projects um they are Catalyst for the area and helping create the change that we want to see overall in that District um not to belabor storm water but I can tell you one of these projects had to bring back 20 ft their um building footprint because of the storm water issues in the area so um that's something we didn't get right and so this is a way that we can also help um that was a tremendous cost to that particular development and so um this is also a way to kind of write one of those wrongs that we have made in the in the past so I really appreciate all your team I know mayor and I met with them what feels like a decade ago but it wasn't it was probably a year ago um so thank you for all your hard work great job Michael thank you thank you Council has lost our presid ations any requests for future agenda items or reports Elizabeth just second go ahead Elizabeth oh so I would like a presentation on um what we do as a city for civil service and then our general employees as far as um health benefits whether that be um employee benefit programs or um through our um some whatever Innovative programs we're kind of doing to to help with our employees both physical and and mental health Gina I've got a couple uh the first one is as we continue to support the construction of affordable housing I would like a report that shows the inventory of city-owned property throughout the city and it should include land information uh the other one is regarding my Fort Worth app and the call center I think the use of the call center and my Fort Worth app is increasing that's a good thing but it's good to know what's being reported so i' like some type of breakdown on the cause complaints inquiries that we're looking at from my Fort Worth app and the call center and I'm good with waiting a couple of months on that but I think it's it continues to show engagement we just need to know what kind of calls are coming in in the event we can establish some kind of automated answer or whatever a different way so those are my two anyone else I think that's it meeting adjourned [Music] [Applause] [Music] the [Music] I [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] I good afternoon everyone this I am Janie Scarlet Morales I am an assistant director with the development servic and I am also a member of the city of for diversity and inclusion committee on behalf of the committee I welcome you to the Hispanic Heritage Month program music is a great great way to sell a boss if you enjoyed the performance we're going to hear a little bit more from them later on in our program this year the theme for the Hispanic Heritage Month program is trail of Mexican-American experience in Fort Worth it is undeniable that Hispanics are an integral part of the fabric of this diverse City so it is appropriate that we celebrate Hispanic heritage month we also acknowledge and understand the history from Latino Trailblazers and path they've paved so today the diversity and inclusion employee employee committee would like to celebrate by inviting Dr Pete Martinez associate professor of history at Taran County College northeast campus and founding board member of historians of Latino American Teran County also known as olola Taran County to share with you his research and perspectives on the trails of Mexican-American experience in Fort Worth which is the subject matter of an Ola Teran County popup exhibit which is the same name as which is currently on display at the city of Fort Worth it is at the south end of the second floor and it will be displayed through October the 15th and the display is actually here on this floor and it's on the other side of this this conference room the exhibit was created by AO Martinez using numerous visual resources from Fort Worth Public Library and based on Dr Pete Martinez's research and demonstrates the Deep history of mexican-americans in Fort Worth from 1990 to 1950 each pillar Chronicles key moments and chates the experience of the Mexican experience and highlights their Journey from nearly arrived laborers to building of their communities and becoming permanent and active members of the city before we get started on the presentation I would like to introduce assistant city manager Valerie Washington and chief communication officer Renee Tillis here with us today to share a message from City leadership thank you again wasn't wer wasn't that great for middle schoolers to be doing that um to the pipeline to North Side High School so we appreciate them being here we also appreciate um some of our um executive staff and elected I see in the audience um so Jess McCracken assistant city manager there in the back Dian head of HR right here um danana um assistant city manager and we have um council member lorf here so we thank them all for being here um thank you for joining us for Hispanic um Heritage Month this celebration as the chief Communications officer with oversight of communications um the website engagement and more there are some changes um that I'd like you to be aware of that we've made in relation to the work we do for the City of Austin so we have always um city of Fort I'm sorry whoopsie it's been a it's been a fast year thank you for the correction so um the the city of website had a way that you can click on the word English and it gave you a dropdown for all of the things that you could then um have the website automatically translated and it came to our attention that if you don't read or speak English you would not inherently ever click on the word English to give you the drop down for the other languages so now we have a Vietnamese flag and a Mexican flag that at least gives you some indication to go there to receive the drop down that'll be able to then translate what it is that you're doing um we are also providing translation more regularly and frequently at our uh meetings we have some of our engagement staff um here that have really helped us out with our budget meetings that were all across the city and particularly in the in the budget meetings where we knew that there would be a strong population um potentially for those that are interested in coming we have simultaneous translation so it's happening in real time and they're taking place in not a separate meeting where they're hearing it in Spanish but in order to to maintain the group dynamic they have the translation um available to them in real time we had very few takers so be sure to tell um your friends and family that may be interested in in these meetings that we pre-identify that they could take place and maybe feel comfortable in doing that and then I think the most important news is we're going to have for I I was saying the first time ever but um the uh Pat swera who was the in my role in the 90s has written to us on Facebook and saying I'm glad to see that you're going to have the first Communications translator interpreter that's full-time in Spanish um in the Spanish language joining us on November October 9th and so that's exciting news for us but um they did have a full-time translator as I understand in in the '90s um so um there are some those are some of the initiatives on the professional side on the personal side I wanted to share my personal connection to this Heritage growing up my parents grandparents and extended family introduced me to the rich and vibrant culture um that we had in Hispanic heritage we would listen to iconic Latin artists like little Joy Le Familia um which filled our home with joy and music and another cherish memory is the holiday season when my family would come together to make the males in preparation for our big extended family Christmas Eve celebration it really was a time of laughter togetherness and sharing of delicious trans um Traditions it's essential that we celebrate and honor the diverse backgrounds and traditions that make our city so vibrant and Hispanic heritage is an integral part of our community contributing to the tapestry of Fort Worth thank you it's really a pleasure to be here and thank you Renee um and thank you for being here especially coming to a current city hall where you have to navigate parking especially if you come from other divisions so thank you thank you thank you for taking time out of your day and your lunch hour to be here um as members of the city manager's executive leadership team we want you to know that we're all here um and appreciate and want to continue recognizing the rich diversity and Heritage of our city of Fort Worth employees our city management team our ACM team is very diverse um and that's on purpose we bring such different viewpoints to the table um as all of us do in this room so it really is important to make sure we surround ourselves with diverse people and diverse thoughts um so we could be open and learn how to really run a top class city um which we have here in Fort Worth um our colleague Renee shared his personal connection to Hispanic heritage um and again and it's a reminder that we all have unique stories about our cultures and memories of growing up and things that make us who we are um and who we are when we enter into a room where we can feel comfortable I think we've all probably entered rooms where you don't quite feel like people get who you are um and we want to create the environment here where any room any meeting that you walk into everyone is open and welcoming um and wanting to learn more about different heritages um as we uh celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month thank you for the display that you have um on the second floor I hope everyone takes time to see that um I was here a couple of council um meetings ago there was a big Hispanic heritage celebration out in the lobby and we happen to have Executives here on an economic development deal um and they were able to catch the city of Fort Worth just being us right we didn't put on this big celebration for them or to get them to move to our city um but they were able to come to Fort Worth and see that we um value and cherish Hispanic heritage and as a company that has Hispanic employees they want to be able to move here and know that their employees are going to be welcome here at work and in our community um so I applaud us for being caught doing something right um in that area and I really applaud Christina Brooks and the diversity and inclusion team um and the diversity committee for holding these events and bringing us together um and I'm looking forward to the presentation today from Ola so thank you very much for being being here let's continue to celebrate our differences and let's enjoy the rest of this program thank [Applause] you now without further delay please help me welcome Dr Pete [Applause] Martinez oh it really is a pleasure to be here and uh when I was invited to speak here I was excited mainly because there's two things I'm really excited about in particular it's uh Fort Worth my love for Fort Worth and my love for Mex American history in fact when I was a graduate student at the University of Texas at Arlington working my masters in history I didn't really know where my path was going to go until I started looking at Mex American history and I tried to narrow it down to North Texas and I didn't really find very much uh so I started doing this work as a master student and then that basically triggered me to go into my doctorates my doctoral dissert addresses Mex American history in Fort Worth also um so I'm very happy to be here to present this information to you and U thanks to aruro uh for providing the PowerPoint uh this was from this uh exhibit that we sent out the trail of the Mex American Experience in Fort Worth uh again feel free to go down and look at it if you haven't already uh and I'm going to start off by talking about how or kind of the roots of the migration in the first place so uh if we look back at Mexico in let's say the 1870s when bidio di uh first took power you know di if you don't know was uh president or dictator depending on your perspective uh from about 1876 to 1911 so for a long time the S is in power uh he really transforms the economy uh just to put this in perspective there were about 640 kmers of railroad in Mexico when he took over pres 640 and the railroad was basically run by mules so you attach cars to mules and they would travel instead of actual locomotives or steam engines uh by the time we get to 1898 uh we are up to over 12,000 kilometers so we go we expand this quite a bit within 20 years and we increase this expansion as we go into the early 20th century uh before of course the S uh Reign came to an end with the Advent of the Mexican Revolution uh now when this happened right you can look at the as as a very positive thing right he transforms the economy Mexico is able to trade uh they get a lot of money a lot of money comes in from foreign countries they build up this infrastructure but at the same time we wind up taking away land right we had these land reforms where people in northern Mexico